Last Thursday, this correspondent visited Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, and the area around Shahbagh’s Bangladesh Medical University (former BSMMU).

Md Rabiul, who sells coconuts from a van beside the wall of Bangladesh Medical University, said the area falls under the Dhaka-8 constituency, where BNP candidate Mirza Abbas and 11-party alliance candidate Nasiruddin Patwari are contesting.

When asked whether election campaigning with loudspeakers was taking place in the medical zone, Rabiul said that just a short while earlier (at 5:10 pm on Thursday), vehicles with loudspeakers had campaigned for the water-lily-bud symbol, and cars bearing the sheaf-of-paddy symbol also regularly campaign there using loudspeakers.

“No one seems to care about the patients who come here for treatment,” said Rabiul. Another nearby vendor, Obaidullah Mia, echoed the sentiment, saying, “Our ears are burning from the noise.”