A young man named Tashfian Atif (22) died after being electrocuted while trying to catch a pet bird in the Hasnabad area of South Keraniganj in the capital. He was a member of a pet bird rescue team called Robinhood. Two other members of the team were burned in the incident, one of whom is being treated in hospital.

Atif died at around 12:15am on Thursday night (21 December) while being treated at the One Stop Emergency Centre (OSEC) of Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Hospital.

Earlier, at around 7:30pm on Thursday, the three were rescued with burns and taken to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Atif was the son of Nazmul Islam of the Chandighat area of Lalbagh in Old Dhaka. He was a class 12 student at Ideal College. His relatives said that alongside his studies he had taken up rescuing pet birds as a hobby turned occupation.

Robin, head of the rescue team known as Robinhood, said that after receiving word on Thursday afternoon they went to the Hasnabad area to rescue a pet bird sitting on a power line and were electrocuted. They were taken to the Sheikh Hasina burn institute, from where Atif was transferred to DMC Hospital at around 10:15pm. Doctors declared him dead at around 12:15am while he was under treatment there.

Another burned victim, Shafiqul Islam, is being treated at the Sheikh Hasina burn institute. The third, Rupok, was released after first aid.

Inspector Md Bachchu Mia, in charge of the DMC Hospital police camp, told Jagonews that three people were taken with burns from South Keraniganj to the Sheikh Hasina burn institute, and that one of them later died while being treated in the emergency department of DMC Hospital. A doctor said the dead man had burns covering 99 per cent of his body.

He said the body has been kept in the hospital's emergency department morgue and the police station concerned has been informed.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.