Tragedy Unfolds: Over 700 lives lost in Bangladesh's uprising, numbers still climbing
DHAKA, Bangladesh – According to Health Adviser Nurjahan Begum, the government has validated information on 737 deceased individuals from the preliminary list of people who died during the student-led public uprising in July and August.
She said that the list of those who have died so far is not complete, as reports of injured people succumbing to their injuries continue to arrive.
Nurjahan Begum made the remarks during a Monday briefing at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
She said that the Directorate General of Health Services MIS system is continuously updated, and that the data was cross-checked as of Monday.
She stated that numerous problems were encountered while creating the list of the deceased. Some victims were already dead when they arrived at hospitals.
To prevent police involvement, several relatives took the bodies without completing the appropriate formalities, such as getting death certificates or conducting postmortem examinations.
Regarding the injured, she stated that approximately 400 people had suffered eye injuries, with many being hospitalized. 35 persons have lost both eyes, and 22 are scheduled for prosthetic limb replacement.
The figure could rise once more evidence is confirmed.
On Sunday, the interim government issued a preliminary list of those killed during the student-led mass uprising.
On September 24, the government made a draft list of 708 names available on the Health Services Division’s website, which the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare runs.
The draft list was further scrutinized, resulting in the preliminary list.
The names and identities of the deceased were obtained from various public and private hospitals.
The list can be found at https://medical-info.dghs.gov.bd/.
According to the UN rights body’s study titled “Preliminary Analysis of Recent Protests and Unrest in Bangladesh,” more than 600 persons were killed between July 16 and August 11, citing available public accounts from the media and the protest movement.
Nearly 400 individuals were killed between July 16 and August 4, with an additional 250 died between August 5 and 6.