Blinded In Bangladesh Protests, Students Hope For Better Future

Dhaka: Bangladeshi student Omar Faruq believes the future of his country is bright but all he can see is darkness after police trying to crush a student-led revolution blinded him with rubber pellets. Faruq is one of dozens being treated at the National Institute of Opthalmology and Hospital. Many of them say their injuries are a small price to pay for the ouster of ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on August 5 ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

"I am happy and this happiness cannot be expressed in words because the atrocities, oppression and tyranny, injustice that was like a steamroller have been removed from over our heads. I feel like new, as if I have been born in a new Bangladesh," says 26-year-old Rahmatullah Sardar Shabbir, who was one of the thousands protesting against Hasina.