KUSHTIA, Nov 05, 2024 (BSS) – “Why did police shoot my father  . . .I will remove all the bullets from my father’s body, then he will surely get cured,” said four-year-old Faria Tabassum Farah.

“Now, no one loves me... My father has become a star in the sky,” Faria continued saying.

Her brother Fahim Mahmud Pran said, “It is going to rain soon. I will go to my father's grave. Dad will get drenched if I don’t take an umbrella to cover his grave. They shot my father dead ... .but why?”

Her brother Fahim Mahmud Pran said, “I stand with an umbrella beside my father’s grave to protect him from rains “.  Fahim  is still waiting for his father’s return but his tender age is not enough to understand the essence of death.

Many questions arise in his mind, where is my father and why police shot my  father.  The way beloved minor son of Ahraful is spending his time. But irony of fate is that Fahim will never get touch of love and affection of his father.

This is how Farah and Pran shared their heart-touching feelings and for their father while talking to BSS recently.

Ashraful was killed during the anti-discrimination student movement on August 5.

Little Farah does not know what death is, that's why she wants to exhume her father’s body from the grave to save him and cure him from bullet injuries. She just wants her father back.  

Ashraful Islam was a painter by profession, though he was always aware of people's rights. When the anti-discrimination student movement started in the beginning of July, he took to the street expressing solidarity with the people who were demanding to reform quota and eventually to oust autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina.  

He went out of his home to take part in the movement, but he did not return as he was gunned down by police on August 5, as the fag end of the student-led mass uprising.
 
Like other parts of the country, the movement became intense in Kushita town, and the NS Road area of the district town became the heart of the battlefield.

A number of people died and scores were injured during the movement. Only on August 5, nine people were killed by police firing, and Ashraful Islam, 48, who is the father of the aforesaid two kids, was among those martyrs.

Laboni Akter Ety, wife of Ashraful, said, “On August 5, my husband went out of the house, saying to me that he would have lunch with us after coming home... He did not tell me that he was going to participate in the movement, as I was forbidding him to go to the movement... We were not be able to launch together anymore.”

“Police shot him from close range... Though he fell down on the ground, police kept kicking him. There is video footage over the brutality of police on my husband,” she said.

“How will I raise my son and daughter? I can't console them. I am yet to receive any help from the government,” she added.

She said Fahim remains busy with his father’s motorcycle and photos, as if he wanted to feel the touch and presence of his father.

Ashraful’s income was not sufficient to run his family properly, but after his death, his family is passing days with grave uncertainty.

With the help from relatives, Laboni is now arranging bread and butter for her two kids.

Laboni said, “Though we are passing days in hardship and uncertainty, I am proud that my husband has sacrificed his life for the country... He will remain in the hearts’ of the county's people forever.”

She urged affluent sections of the people to extend financials assistances for running my family.