Shot six times, Amir lives to tell his tale

After broadband internet was restored in select areas on July 23, a video dated from July 19 began circulating on social media showing a boy hanging from the cornice of an under-construction building.
Two cops then arrive at the scene and several rounds of gunshots are heard. The video shows police pointing their guns at the boy, who is desperately hanging on for his life.
The footage led many to believe that the person in the video had been killed on the spot.
This correspondent spoke to eyewitnesses and verified the authenticity of the video through geolocation tracking on July 24.
It was confirmed that the footage was from a building near Meradia Bazar in Rampura.
Visiting the under-construction building, this correspondent saw bloodstains marking the third and fourth floors.
However, this was all circumstantial evidence, and without tracing the body, The Daily Star could not confirm the death.
Despite efforts to track down the body to confirm the death, all attempts failed.
However, recently, we got information that Amir, the subject in the video who everyone believed to be dead, is alive.
He is now recovering at his Dhaka residence in a slum in Noapara, Meradia.
Speaking with The Daily Star yesterday, Amir told us how he survived.
After attending Friday prayers, he was on his way home when BGB and police opened fire on protesters. Fearing for his life, he ran and took refuge on the fourth floor of the under-construction building.
According to Amir, two police officers suddenly entered the building and chased him. He retreated and hung onto the cornice of the fourth floor. When cops found Amir, they pointed their firearms at him, and yelled, “Jhap de, jhap de (Jump, jump).”
To intimidate him, one of the officers fired several blank shots while pointing their gun at him.
“But I knew that if I jumped, I would not survive the fall,” Amir added.
Suddenly, another cop from the third floor shot at him six times, aiming at both of his legs.
He fell to the third floor, collapsed and began bleeding profusely. Then the officers left, completely disregarding whether Amir was alive.
“I tried to get up, but had no strength. I shouted, but sounds of gunfire muffled my please for help,” Amir recounted.
“At one point, I almost gave up hope. I thought I would die. My vision was blurred, but a part of me didn’t want to give up. I kept thinking, ‘I can’t die like this’. Thoughts of my elderly father and my sister, whose marriage I had been saving money for, kept me going. This wasn’t how I would die,” he added.
Gradually, the gunshots stop ringing through the area. After nearly three hours, a student rushed into the building and found Amir lying in a pool of blood.
Two doctors from a nearby hospital, who were in the area, quickly joined the rescue. They worked desperately to stop the bleeding.
“They kept telling me, ‘Don’t close your eyes. We won’t let you die. Please, don’t close your eyes’,” Amir recalled.
They took him to Famous Hospital, where he received initial treatment that night, before being referred to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
Amir experienced so much blood loss that he required three bags of blood at the hospital. After three days, he was discharged from DMCH.
“He needed further treatment, but DMCH was flooded with people who had life-threatening injuries. Since Amir’s condition was stable, doctors prescribed him medication for three months and sent him home,” said Nasima Begum, Amir’s aunt.
“After the video went viral, we heard police were searching for us. There were stories of raids where police were picking up people with bullet injuries, so we stayed quiet. Journalists were looking for him, but we only found our voices after hearing about Sheikh Hasina’s fall on August 5,” she added.
Amir showed this correspondent all of the bullet wounds he had to mark the horrific day.
In his right leg, a bullet struck the sole of his foot and pierced through his ankle, another hit his shin and exited through his calf, and a third struck his thigh, passing through his hip.
In his left leg, one bullet struck just below his knee and exited the other side, another hit the top of his thigh and exited through the opposite end. The last one was lodged below his thigh and exited through the other side.
We took photos of his medical reports, including the X-rays, and consulted physicians from Famous Hospital and Farazy Hospital, where Amir had a follow-up after being discharged from DMCH.
At Famous Hospital, doctors confirmed that Amir would have likely died from excessive bleeding if he had been brought in just 5-10 minutes later. Both hospitals noted that Amir’s speedy recovery was due to the fact that none of the six bullets struck his bones; if they had, it might have been fatal.
However, Amir still can’t stand on his own and needs assistance to use the washroom. The doctors noted that he lost a significant amount of blood and it would take time for him to fully recover.