Staff Reporter :
Crowd of Tejgaon area in Dhaka protested against Akij Group’s initiatives to build a hospital there for taking care of coronavirus infected patients.
The mob attacked and vandalised the site around 1:00 pm on Saturday after the construction work began.
The incident left three persons, including security and construction workers, injured.
Those people attacked the site a day after Akij Group planned to build a specialised hospital at Tejgaon, as there is no such hospital to detect and treat coronavirus patients.
Later, those people took to the streets in protest.
Ruhul Amin, Sub-Inspector of Tejgaon Police Station told journalists that the local people left the area within half an hour. The situation is now calm, he added. Witnesses said that about 200 men took part in the attack.
Then local Ward Councillor Shafiullah Shafi of Dhaka North City Corporation went.
Replying a query of journalists, Shafiullah Shafi said that about one thousand men came here hearing that a coronavirus related hospital was under construction here.
On the other hand, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury of Gonoshashthya Nogor Hospital, who is also one of the entrepreneurs of the corona treatment hospital alleged that the local councillor was behind the protest and attack.
He said a rumor was circulated that the hospital may spread the virus, but question is how it can spread the Covid-19 while it will only detect and give treatment.
Meanwhile, Shafiullah Shafi rejected his involvement in the incident saying that the people took part in the protest were not his men.
Earlier, Akij Group’s Managing Director Sheikh Bashir Uddin said that a 301 beds hospital would be built on the company’s empty plot in the area.
Akij Group will give treatment free of cost to the corona infected patients.
He expressed hope that the hospital will start giving treatment within two weeks.
