Akij Group’s corona patients hospital plan faces protests

Staff Reporter: Some people of Tejgaon area protested Akij Group’s initiatives to build a hospital in the area for rending medical care of coronavirus infected patients.
The mob attack and vandalised the site around 1:00 pm on Saturday after the construction work began.
The incident left three people, including security and construction workers, were injured.
Those people attacked the site a day after Akij Group announced a plan to build a specialised hospital as there is lack of such hospitals to detect and give medical treatment to coronavirus patients in the country.
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 and protest.
Then local ward-24 councilor Shafiullah Shafi of Dhaka North City Corporation went the site.
Replying a query of journalists, Shafiullah Shafi said about one thousand men came here hearing a coronavirus infecting patients hospital is under construction here.
I am here to calm the protesting people.
On the other hand, Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury of Gonosashtya Nogor Hospital, who is also one of the entrepreneurs of the corona treatment hospital alleged that the local councilor 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 refused his involvement in the incident saying the people took part in the protest are not his men.
Earlier, Akij Group’s Managing Director Sheikh Bashir Uddin said a 301 beds hospital would be built on the company’s empty plot which number is 184 in the area.
Akij Group will rend treatment free of cost to the corona infected patients.
He expressed hope that the hospital will start giving treatment within two weeks.