By Didarul Alam

DHAKA, Sept 18, 2024 (BSS) - Kamal Mia, an outsourcing peon and rickshaw puller, was shot to death in police firing in the capital's Malibagh area on his way to his son's Madrasah to provide him meal during the student-led mass upsurge on July 19.

After the death of sole wage earner, darkness and uncertainty shrouds the six-member family as Kamal's wife Fatema Khatun bears tough times and goes door to door for arranging food, house rent and education of his four children-one boy and three girls.

Fatema said, "It was July 19 (Friday). Students had been protesting for the days for quota system reform in the government jobs and demanding justice for already deaths. We were hearing news of indiscriminate firings and deaths from different places. My husband was at home the whole day."

She said, "After Magrib prayer, my husband left home for our son Yasin's Madrasha taking some food and clothes. Yasin studies at Najera department of Sheikh Janruddin Darul Ulum Madrashah located at Malibagh's Chowdhury para".

"After few minutes of his departure, a local boy came to our house and said that my husband was shot and was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Right at that moment, I rushed to the (DMCH) with one of my daughters amid police's very aggressive presence on the streets of Shantinagar and Kakrail area".

"I was looking for my husband in different wards of the hospital. Then I finally found him in the morgue. I saw my husband's bullet-ridden frozen body lying in the morgue. The bullet hit his back and exited through his stomach. I saw that blood continues to flow from the wound", Fatema said with maniacal crying.

On the next day on July 20, my husband's dead body was brought from the DMCH and buried amid hostile circumstances.
 
Kamal Mia used to work as an outsourcing peon in Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority. He also pulled rickshaw to support the six-member family after accomplishing his official job.

Kamal's family lives in a small apartment at Shantinagar's bot tola area.
 
Kamal's helpless wife said, "Education of my four children is at a stake. I don't know how I will continue their education. I could not even pay the house rent last month. What will I do now? Will I manage food for them or pay house rent or educational expenses?"
 
After trying hard for the last two months, Fatema failed to arrange a Job for her. She also went to her husband's BIWTA office. However, the authorities asked her to write an application to the chairman. "I have been trying relentlessly to manage a permanent job", said Fatema.
 
She also demanded punishment of the culprits who killed her husband.
 
On August 29, Health Adviser Nurjahan Begum said more than 1,000 people were killed and over 400 became blind during the protests calling for reforms to the quota system in government jobs, which eventually became an anti-government movement that toppled the Awami League government.
 
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) claimed to have documented the deaths of 875 individuals -743 identified and 132 unidentified- across Bangladesh during the student-led uprising.
 
The HRSS stated the causes of 772 victims’ deaths. Among them, 599 were shot dead, 61 burnt to death, 85 were beaten to death, and 27 succumbed to other causes.