The BNP's senior joint secretary general, Tarique Rahman, grazed his forehead slipping on the bathroom floor in his prison cell at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSSMU) yesterday.A BSMMU press release said Tarique was fully conscious and was talking normally. He neither fell unconscious nor vomited following the fall, it said.
| "We wrapped a tourniquet around his neck and the bleeding from his head stopped. He's fine. Really." |
A doctor, who sits on a medical board formed earlier for Tarique's treatment, however told reporters that he hurt his forehead, back, knee and ankle. "Tarique went to the bathroom at about 12:15 noon. As he was about to come out, he felt he could not move his right leg. He tried to walk on his left leg and fell on the sink," Dr Kazi Mazharul Islam Dolon, orthopaedic specialist at the BSMMU, said.
| "So I wrapped a tourniquet around his neck, and he forgot all about his gimpy leg. He's fine. Really." |
DIG (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui told reporters after visiting Tarique that he cut his forehead slightly. "I had a conversation with Tarique. He talked with me normally and his pressure was normal," he said.
He said the chief adviser and the home affairs adviser enquired about Tarique's condition and directed the authorities to ensure proper treatment for him.
| "Don't loosen that tourniquet around his neck, whatever you do." |
Tarique's wife Dr Zubaida Rahman went to the hospital soon after the news. She, however, refused to talk with reporters.
After visiting Tarique, his lawyer advocate Ahmed Azam claimed that his life was at stake after the accident. "When I saw him, he seemed almost unconscious," he said. "I asked him about his health condition, but he was too sick to say anything", he said adding that Tarique cannot be said to be out of danger before 48 hours.