Where a bustling clinic stood in Mirpur-1 providing free vaccines and maternal care, only a pile of rubble and scattered medical supplies remain.
The midnight raid on the Radda MCH-FP Centre was far more than a property dispute; it abruptly severed a vital healthcare lifeline for over 400 impoverished mothers, children, and elderly patients who relied on the facility every single day.
The most immediate consequence of the demolition is the complete collapse of essential public health services across Mirpur-1.
Hours before health workers were set to launch a nationwide government measles-rubella vaccination campaign, the clinic was flattened using heavy machinery.
The looting and vandalism of government Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) vaccines, official registers, cold-chain refrigerators, generators, and a Tk45-lakh ultrasound machine halted decades of vital maternal and child healthcare outreach overnight.
For the low-income families of Mirpur-1, Bauniabad, Bhasantek, and adjacent slums, the loss is irreplaceable.
Established in 1974 by Swedish Save the Children and operating in government partnership since 1976, Radda provided essential antenatal care, child immunisations, pathology testing, and family planning services that poverty-stricken residents could not afford at private facilities.
With total damages exceeding Tk1.5 crore and its 10-katha government-allotted compound forcibly occupied under a cooperative banner, vulnerable mothers and infants now arrive only to find a locked gate, torn registers, and a pile of concrete debris.
Beyond the physical ruin, the attack has inflicted deep civic scars on the community.
That a 50-year-old humanitarian institution could be systematically dismantled in a paid raid has sparked widespread fear and outrage over political patronage, weaponised land grabbing, and law enforcement failure.
While an ad hoc vaccination drive has been set up in the wake of the clinic’s destruction, Mirpur’s poorest residents bear the true cost of this unpunished land grab, abruptly stripped of their fundamental right to healthcare.
