Doctors have surgically removed over 50 gas lighters along with nail cutters, screws, and pieces of brick from the stomach of a life term convict at Kashimpur High Security Central Jail in Gazipur.
The convict, Hasmat Ali, hails from Ramdebpur village in Ghatail upazila under Tangail district. He was taken to hospital after developing severe abdominal pain and physical complications, where medical examinations confirmed the presence of the foreign objects prior to surgery.
According to prison authorities, Hasmat Ali was suffering from a complex medical condition diagnosed as “Acute Abdominal with Epigastric Mass”.
On 31 October at 7:20pm, he was transferred to Dhaka Central Jail, Keraniganj, and subsequently taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Surgeons at Dhaka Medical College Hospital performed the operation on 4 November, successfully extracting the gas lighters and other items from his stomach.
Kashimpur High Security Central Jail senior jail superintendent Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun, said Hasmat Ali had been mentally distressed for a long time following the murder of his father. To help him cope with his mental anguish while serving his sentence, prison authorities assigned him as a cleaner after he expressed interest to engaging in work.
The senior jail superintendent explained that while carrying out cleaning duties, the convict collected discarded gas lighters from rubbish and swallowed them. When he fell ill, he was sent to hospital, where medical tests confirmed the presence of the objects in his stomach before the surgical procedure was performed.
