從恐懼到希望：一個孟加拉男孩的奇跡重生（上）

You cannot die！ You cannot die！” the father mumbles to the bloodied， 1）mutilated boy who lies unconscious on his lap.

“Listen to me！ You cannot die！” he repeats his 2）morbid 3）mantra. “If for nothing else， to exact justice.”

The two are on a 4）rickshaw headed to a hospital in 5）Dhaka. It’s not the most effective way to transport a dying child through the cramped， 6）congested streets of the Bangladeshi capital. But it’s all that the 7）impoverished father can afford.

Hours earlier， four men had surrounded the 7-year-old boy， bound his hands and feet and cracked open his head with a brick. They held him down and took a 8）switchblade to his throat. They sliced his chest and belly in an upside down cross. And in a final brutal act， they hacked him sideways， chopping off his 9）genitalia.

“It’s amazing that he lived，” a doctor would later say. “I’m really surprised he didn’t bleed to death prior to getting to the hospital.”

This is the story of a boy who not only survived， but is now the key witness in a trial that has forced Bangladesh to confront the cruel but overlooked practice of forced begging.

It is also the story of strangers， half a world away， who set out to show the boy that good exists in equal measure as evil—and who set off a chain reaction of kindness to make him whole again.

For his 10）resiliency， we will call him“Okkhoy”—the Bengali word for “unbreakable.”

Pure Evil

The attack took place in late 2010， just a few days before the Muslim festival of 11）Eid. Three area kids lured Okkhoy out of his home with the promise of a 12）popsicle.

“They kept insisting that I go down to this one area，” Okkhoy recounts. “I kept saying，‘Why？’”

His suspicions aroused， Okkhoy says he set off for home when a group of neighborhood men grabbed him and pulled him into an alley.

“They tied me up and told me they’d force me to beg，” he says. “I told them， ‘I know each and every one of you. And I’m going to tell my father.’”

That’s when one of the men grabbed a brick and struck him across the head， he says.

He fell to the ground and， mercifully， lost consciousness. Because what followed was even worse—an act that authorities dubbed “pure evil.”

The attackers left Okkhoy by the side of a warehouse， intending to come back later and dump him in the river.

His mother， who had gone looking for her missing child， found him.

Abed， alerted by a neighbor， rushed to the scene—and the 13）gory sight.

“It felt like the sky fell on me，” he says. “As a father， there is no greater pain in the world than knowing that you could not protect your child.”

Okkhoy spent three months in a Dhaka hospital， where doctors stitched up his wounds. But they were unable to do much to repair the severed organ.

A Despicable Practice

For most Westerners， the issue of forced begging was thrust into the spotlight in the 2008 Oscarwinning movie Slumdog Millionaire， in which a child in Mumbai， India， is intentionally blinded so he could bring in more money in alms.

But the existence and prevalence of “beggar 14）mafias” is an open secret in South Asian countries.

Pity pays.

So， the gangs kidnap and cripple children—knowing 15）sympathetic passersby are more likely to be touched by， and give to， a limbless child.

Almost half of Bangladesh’s 150 million people live on less than a dollar a day. The economy has slowed； poverty is skyrocketing.

And each new day brings a fresh batch of sun-caked boys and girls who tap on car windows to draw attention to their 16）disfigurement—a desperate way to survive.

The U.S. State Department， in its 2012 Trafficking in Persons report， cited forced begging as one of the areas where Bangladesh needs to develop a comprehensive approach of prevention and 17）prosecution.

Begging is banned in the country—at least in its 18）penal code. And a three-year prison term awaits anyone caught forcing someone to beg. But enforcement is 19）lax and for now， the 20）ringmasters in this cruel circus remain above the law.

A Nation Outraged

Okkhoy’s case would have gone unnoticed were it not for his father’s chance meeting with a human rights lawyer， Alena Khan.

When Abed went to the police to report the attack， he was told a case was already in the books.

Someone who identified himself as the boy’s uncle had told police that Okkhoy was assaulted by two boys in a playground 21）spat that turned ugly.

“Two little boys are capable of such brutality？ And you believe that？” the incredulous father asked.

“Yes， now let us do our job，” he was told and dismissed.

Undeterred， Abed decided to appeal to a judge. But there， too， he was told to let the police handle the matter.

In the courthouse that day was Khan who， as founder of the Bangladesh Human Rights Foundation， has made a career of upsetting the 22）status quo.

“I saw the father standing there helplessly before the judge， and I kept thinking that there’s a child who has been broken beyond repair，” she recalls.

Khan decided the first thing the case needed was attention， so she contacted a local television station.

“No child should go through this，” she says.

The response from an outraged nation was immediate.

The high court asked authorities to launch an inquiry.

And within days， the Rapid Action Battalion， Bangladesh’s elite anti-crime unit， rounded up five suspects and charged them with attempted murder.

Why did they target Okkhoy？

It was payback， his father says.

Abed had gotten into an argument with one of the men at a tea stall.

“He said to me， ‘Just you wait and see. I will take your son and make him work for me.’”

Authorities continue to look for four others who they say are part of the same gang. To ensure Okkhoy and his family stay safe， they were placed in a battalion compound.

“As long as it has its 23）venom， a snake will always attack，” Abed says. “Who knows how many other children this gang did this to？ Because we’re the family that unmasked them， they will always want to destroy us.”

（To be cintinued...）

你不能死！你不能死！”父親對著鮮血淋漓，一身傷殘的男孩喃喃而語，而男孩躺在他懷里已經不省人事了。

“聽我的話！你不能死！”他重復著他那可怕的禱咒。“如果不是為了別的什么，也要求個公道。”

兩人正乘坐一輛三輪車趕往達卡市的醫院。要送一個垂死的男孩穿過孟加拉國首都狹窄而擁擠的街巷，這并不是最為有效的方法，但這已是這位窮困父親所能盡的最大努力了。

幾個小時前，四名男子圍住這個七歲男孩，捆住他的手腳，并用一塊磚砸破了他的腦袋。他們把他摁在地上，用一把彈簧刀劃破他的喉嚨。他們在他的胸口和肚子上切下一個倒十字。在殘忍的最后一擊里，他們將他踢成側臥狀，砍掉了他的生殖器。

“他能活下來真是個奇跡，”一位醫生后來說道。“我真的是非常吃驚，他竟然沒在到達醫院之前因為流血過多而死。”

這是一個男孩的故事，他不僅活了下來，而且如今變成了一場審判的關鍵證人，迫使孟加拉國去面對這種殘忍卻備受忽視的強迫行乞行為。

這也是一群陌生人的故事，他們遠在地球的另一端，卻決心要讓那男孩看到這世界不僅存在著邪惡，同樣還有善良——而他們也引發了一系列善意的連鎖反應，讓他恢復如初。

因為男孩的韌力，我們將會稱他為“歐可伊”——孟加拉語里“堅強不屈”的意思。

純粹的邪惡

那場襲擊發生于2010年年底，就在穆斯林宰牲節的前幾天。三個當地的孩子許諾歐可伊會請他吃冰棒，將他誘拐出了家門。……