Amputee July Uprising victim struggles for recognition and adequate support
For 43-year-old pickup truck driver Md. Shafiqul Islam, the afternoon of July 16, 2024, began as a routine workday and ended in a life-altering ordeal. While delivering poultry from Rangpur to Dhaka, Shafiqul stopped in Gazipur near the Ansar-VDP Academy for a meal. Shortly after, amid the chaos of the July mass uprising, he was struck by gunfire. Left bleeding on the street for over an hour, he was eventually rescued by an autorickshaw driver and taken to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital.
The recovery process proved far more grueling than the injury itself. Following weeks of inadequate care and mounting medical debt, Shafiqul was eventually transferred to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR). Despite subsequent surgeries to treat his shattered leg, recurring infections led to the eventual amputation of his right leg above the knee in February 2025. Today, he relies on crutches and an artificial limb provided by BRAC to navigate daily life, his livelihood as a driver permanently extinguished.
Under the interim government’s classification system for those affected by the uprising, Shafiqul is categorized as a "Category B" injured fighter, entitling him to a monthly stipend of 15,000 taka. However, he contends that his disability—which has left him unable to work—warrants "Category A" status, which provides 20,000 taka per month for those rendered unable to lead an independent life. His struggle is compounded by the fact that he was registered three months prior to the finalization of the most severe injury criteria, leaving him excluded from higher support tiers.
Shafiqul’s financial distress is acute. Before the injury, he earned a steady income, supporting his wife and two daughters, one of whom is a college student. He currently receives only 4,500 taka monthly from renting out an autorickshaw provided by a non-profit organization. He claims he has visited the July Shaheed Smriti Foundation at least five times seeking additional assistance, only to be turned away or told that the foundation is struggling with its own liquidity.
According to the July Shaheed Smriti Foundation, the government has recognized 865 deaths and 15,903 injuries resulting from the movement. Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Kamal Akbar, CEO of the foundation, acknowledged the shortfall in aid, noting that the organization required 383 billion taka to fully support all victims but had received only 100 billion taka from the interim government. He added that the foundation has faced internal financial crises, including the inability to pay its own staff for five months, while waiting for further government allocations to reach the remaining thousands of injured fighters.
