‘Who will ask for justice? I gave judgment to Allah’
“Five hundred police surrounded the house at night. We are only five/six women at home. It was three o’clock at night. In the room where I slept, he was giving the house with a stick on the grill of the balcony of the room. We are in deep sleep after not sleeping for two days before. When I came out after a long time, he opened the door. They treated me very badly.”
Samchi Ara Zaman, the mother of freelance journalist Tahir Zaman Priya, who was killed during the quota reform movement in Bangladesh, was speaking to BBC Bangla. who is himself a cancer patient.
Police search at Priya’s house
Priya recently worked as a video journalist for an online news outlet called ‘The Report’. He stayed with his mother in Rangpur for several days before joining another new institution.
He returned to Dhaka from Rangpur on the night of 10th July. The next day he spoke to his mother for the last time on a video call.
Friends who were with the deceased Priya told Miz Zaman that he died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital around 5 pm. He was shot dead during an encounter on Central Road in the capital.
Priya’s body was taken to Rangpur on 21st July, where she was buried.
Later that day, law enforcement forces surrounded his house at midnight. RAB and police conducted a search. Miz Zaman alleged that a door of the house was also broken.
Miz Zaman lives in a two-storey house in Jummapara, Rangpur. Miz Zaman said that he lives in the whole house by himself, there is no tenant.
The search was carried out while wearing RAB uniform. He claimed that those who did not have uniforms had big hammers in their hands. He said that although the door was opened, the members of law enforcement did not give any reason for the search.
“Do they pretend to be late to open the door? You don’t feel it, do you? Didn’t realize you told me to believe? When I asked why I should open the door, they did not tell me why they were coming. It was taking too long to find the key. Then there was a door on the side and they broke it and went up to the roof. Later, if you want to break the big door with a hammer, I don’t have to break it. Open the door later”, said Miz Zaman.
Miz Zaman’s husband was once involved in politics but quit many years ago. He was not at home in fear of being searched day and night.
The mother of the deceased Priya claimed that law enforcement forces were searching houses in Rangpur city at that time.
The family is still living in fear. On Sunday afternoon, when he was talking to the reporter of BBC Bengal, he said that he received information that the law and order forces may come again.
Miz Zaman said, “Yesterday I got news that they will come again. I could not sleep at night. I was awake all night. I don’t know that so many police, so many RAB attacked the house like this!”
He said that they entered the houses of the neighboring relatives and searched ten flats.
‘I have given judgment to God’
Student Mahmudur Rahman Saikat was killed on July 19 during the ongoing quota reform movement. Saikat was the only son of his parents and was the youngest among three brothers and sisters.
The family informed that he was preparing for university entrance examination after passing HSC from Government Mohammadpur Model School and College.
So far got chance in seven colleges, but final result is not out yet after giving subject choice.
Saikat’s father Mahbubur Rahman was at the village house at noon on the day of the incident. In his absence, Saikat sat in his own shop on Noorjahan Road in Mohammadpur.
Saikat’s sister Sabrina Afroz Sevanti said that when the clash started at one stage of the movement, her father called her and told her to close the shop and go home. However, Sevanti’s younger brother Saikat did not return home.
Sevanti told BBC Bangla, “She ran from the shop and asked her mother to close the shutters. Mom says stop it soon. He is closing the shutters of the shop. He went a little further to see what happened next. He sees his friend getting shot. So went to that friend. We don’t really know what happened next. He was also shot. He was shot in the head.”
Saikat said ‘I’m going’ when I told my brother to go home quickly on the phone. At the same time said that it is in front of the shop.
Seeing the son’s delay in returning home, after praying, his mother and cousin went out to look for him. Once in between, sister Sevanti and father talk. After that, Saikat did not answer anyone’s phone. His mother could not go far due to the sound of tear-shells and gunshots.
Meanwhile, Saikat’s father Mahbubur Rahman was calling his son continuously from his village home. At one point, a stranger picked up the phone.
“The man kept saying your son is dead. Father says what father say all this! He said you come to Suhrawardy Hospital without crying, because if you don’t get the body later! Abbu calls brother (brother) and tells him that the beach is shooting. Taken to Suhrawardy”, said Sevanti.
Then he quickly came to Suhrawardy Hospital. He identified his brother in the morgue of the emergency department there. Sevanti said there was a bullet mark on the back of his head.
“He was shot at exactly three thirty seven minutes on the 19th. I saw it on a video.”
Saikat’s family is unwilling to seek justice from those who shot dead Saikat.
Sabrina Afroz Sevanti said, “Who will I ask for justice? Who is killing my brother has the benefit of seeking justice? The one or those who are beating my brother … My brother is being shot by the police. Now I will go to the police station and ask for justice? That you killed my brother, you judge?”
Beach would have turned twenty years old on September 11 this year.
“We have not gone to any litigation. Because later they will say do post mortem, do this do that. We buried our brother, no post mortem was done. I gave judgment to Allah. Allah will do what He sees fit”, said Sevanti.
Death on the day of the wedding anniversary
Small businessman Md. Meraj was killed in a clash in Rangpur on 19th July. He used to sell bananas in a van at the local municipal market.
On that day, on the occasion of the wedding anniversary, he organized a small-scale ceremony at home at night. Market in the morning. Invited other relatives of the family.
Meraj returned home after praying in the mosque at noon.
After resting, Meraj left Jummapara home around five in the afternoon. At home, wife Mosammat asks Nazneen Islam to get ready for the night ceremony.
Miz Islam told BBC Bangla, “My family completed 18 years that day. He just went to cover his shop in front of the town market, he said he would come with the moneylender’s money. Telling me to dress well and get ready. I will come soon – I am told.”
“He’s out. People were running around. One was shot. The bullet rang out as he moved away from there. Later people in the market informed that your husband was shot. taken to medical.”
Nazneen Islam went to Rangpur Medical Hospital at 5:30 and found her husband from ward to ward. Later, when he met an acquaintance, he was told that he was taken to a ward on the fifth floor.
“Giving him oxygen by mouth. When I went – I saw a doctor wiping the place where the bullet was. Very poor appearance. They won’t let me see, the doctors are kicking me out, so I’m starting treatment, you go. After a while I heard that he died”, said Miz Islam.
Meraj’s two sons were killed. The elder son is a student of class IX. The youngest son is only three years old. Nazneen Islam’s worries have been eating day by day, but how will it continue now? He kept crying during the phone conversation.
“I couldn’t imagine. Who do I go to? I don’t know anyone. He used to work for so long. I would be satisfied. Now two children, what to do with the mother-in-law? God knows, I don’t understand anything!” Miz Islam continued to say.
Killed while going out to pray
Khalid Hasan Saifullah came out of Amligola house in Lalbagh to offer Asr prayer at Azimpur government staff quarter mosque in capital Dhaka. He was an intermediate first year student of Ideal College, Dhanmondi.
The date of the incident was 18th July, Thursday. He was returning home after finishing prayers between 5:30 and 6:00 in the afternoon.
The police also entered the quarter after chasing the protesters. Local residents said that they fired at that time.
Kamrul Hasan, the father of the deceased Khalid, told BBC Bangla, “I told my mother that I was going to pray Asr in the mosque. After coming home after completing the chamber at eleven in the night, his mother said that Saifullah has not returned home after finishing the prayer.
“I call her mobile. A stranger picked up the phone and asked me to go in front of Amligola Makkah Hotel. When he went there, he gave me his son’s mobile phone. They didn’t even know my son’s name. They took me to Dhaka Medical.
He was later taken to the morgue, where he found the bodies of several boys of the same age. Mr. identified his son’s body there. Hassan
There were at least 71 bullet marks from the shotgun on Khalid’s body.
“Many of the bodies are of the same age. Many bodies of 16 to 18 year olds. I think there were about 18/19 bodies piled up in a small room. I found his body on one side. The boy was wearing Khaeri Punjabi and white pajama. There was a hat, no one took it off”, said Mr. Hassan
Later, with the death certificate, the hospital authorities advised Khalid’s father to report the matter to the police station. Because hospital authorities do not conduct post-mortem without police clearance.
To get this clearance from Lalbagh Police Station, Mr. Hassan It took about three days just to get this police clearance.
At the same time, the family of the deceased has to bear extreme suffering. Mr. complained of non-cooperation from the police station. Hassan
He told BBC Bangla, “They repeatedly said that they are sending people to the hospital during those three days. But they didn’t send anyone. The hospital says they will not come. By doing this only on the 19th, I went from the police station to the morgue, from the morgue to the police station eight/ten times!”
Mr. Khalid’s body was given at 4:30 in the afternoon after the autopsy was completed on Sunday. Hassan Later, Khalid was buried at the village house in Faridpur.
He said, “My son did not go to any protest. The body was killed while praying.”
BBC BANGLA
