By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, Nov 27, 2024 (BSS) - Bilkis Akter, mother of college going Martyr Md Eyasir Sarker, wanted to confine her son at home with all her affections and emotional words during the anti-discrimination student movement to avert any untoward and harmful incident to her son.

But she failed as Eyasir took part in the street protest everyday from July 16 ignoring his mother's affectionate plea and finally embraced martyrdom on August 5 when he was cheering with thousands of people on the city streets following the downfall of fascist ruler Sheikh Hasina.

"Those, who embraced martyrdom, go to Almighty Allah but what is the situation of their parents? They have to bear the pain throughout their life," Bilkis Akter told her son Eyasir. Bilkis Akter described the entire scenario of the student movement aiming to convince his son to stay home.
 
But her heart-touching efforts went in vain, as Eyasir joined the movement to gear up the protest for ending 16-year rule of Sheikh Hasina.

Watching the brutal killing of Abu Sayeed on July 16, Eyasir could not keep her mother's words; rather he joined the movement on that day in the Shanir Akhra area. From then onwards, he regularly participated in the movement until his martyrdom.

Though the family members could not confirm the specific spot and time, referring unidentified eyewitnesses, they said Eyasir might have been shot dead by police in the Kutubkhali area of Jatrabari around 2.50pm on August 5 when he was leading a march towards Ganabhaban after autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina fled the country.

However, in a video, they watched Eyasir's body lying on the road in the Jatrabari area.

Eighteen-year-old Eyasir was a HSC second year student at Government Adamjeenagar M.W. College in Narayanganj and residing along with his family members at Bank Tower on Gas Road in the Shanir Akhra area of Jatrabari here.

He was fourth among his five siblings including three brothers and two sisters, although he used to share stories of the movement with his immediate elder sister Hafsa Bushra, who is an honors third year student at Bangladesh Islamic University (BIU).

Talking to BSS, Bushra said, "Whenever we urged him not to go to the movement, he used to ask us, 'are you Razakars?' After listening to his reply, we could not say anything".

One day, after returning home from movement, Eyasir was narrating his heroic role on the street saying that when many protesters were stepping back seeing people coming with sticks and brickbats, he along with another one retaliated against them, compelling the attackers to run away.

Listening to this heroic story, his eldest brother Md Eyakub Sorkar, who is working at a software farm, verbally abused him and pinched him, saying "Why did you join the movement? Could you manage a government job with such average results?"

"Bhaiya (brother), I didn't go to movement for a job. Didn't you see that many of our brothers are being killed on the streets? I joined the movement to protest these killings," Eyakub quoted Eyasir as he replied and said he cannot say anything more to Eyasir.

On August 4, when Eyasir returned home at noon with injuries, his mother Bilkis Akter again requested him not to go to the demonstration, his bereaved mother burst into tears while recalling her efforts to keep her son away from the movement.

"I tried my level best to keep my beloved son away from the movement, but I cannot confine him. My son went out of the home drinking only a glass of water around 12noon on August 5. He even did not have breakfast that day," Eyasir's weeping mother said.

Noting he was caring towards all, Bilkis, who is a diabetic patient said, "Eyasir was different among my five children. He used to take me and his cancer patient father to the doctor regularly. Whenever I went anywhere, he used to stay by my side".

"We could not think he would leave us in such a way. I still feel his existence. I am always yearning for hearing the call 'mom' from his mouth," sobbing mother of Eyasir said, adding, she still cannot return to normal life.

His elder brother Eyakub said, "Though we are elder than Eyasir, we were under his shadow. He looked after all of us. He used to take our youngest sister Nusaiba, a play student, to Madrasah and bring her home".

Talking about Eyasir's excitement over the movement on August 4, Bushra said when Eyasir heard that the "March to Dhaka Programme" had been rescheduled to August 5, instead of August 6, he was seen very enthusiastic and he forgot his pain of injuries.

His enthusiasm was manifested in his words at the night of that day when he was joking with his elder brother saying, "Brother, let us all including Abbu, Ammu, you and I, join the March to Dhaka Programme tomorrow. If you stay at home instead of joining the programme, the army personnel will come and detain you".

On August 5, Eyasir woke up around 10.30am at his mother's call and was observing the situation on Facebook when thousands of people were coming to Dhaka. At that time, the internet suddenly went off.

After a while, when his mother asked him to bring flour and sugar from a shop near their house, he went to Shanir Akhra to bring the items with a target of observing the spot situation physically.

Eyasir's last conversation was with his eldest brother Eyakub around 5pm on the day.

"When we heard that the country got liberated around 2.30pm, we were happy. But somehow my mind was very unstable," the grief-stricken Bushra said in tears.

At that time her mom was trying to reach Eyasir, but he was not receiving the phone. At one stage Bushra herself was trying to reach Eyasir, but she also failed. After 3pm, however, they found Eyasir's phone switched off, which instilled a fear among them.

Around 6.30pm, Bushra posted a status on her facebook seeking the whereabouts of her brother. But she was annoyed when many people were posting pictures of corpses on her comment box to find his brother.

"When people were asking me whether my brother was among the corpses, I became angry thinking about their commonsense," Bushra said, adding, around 12 midnight, a female posted the picture of Eyasir's body and asked her whether she was her brother.

"We were not ready to hear such heartbreaking news. I lost my conscience for a while. However, after contacting her we came to know that Eyasir's body was kept at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) morgue," she said.

Bushra said after reaching DMCH, they found her second brother Hafez Md Eyahia Sarker, who is a Madrasah teacher, crying standing beside Eyasir's body while Eyasir had a band of 'Kalema Tayeba' on his right hand.

Though they could not confirm who shot Eyasir dead, Bushra said they found signs of three bullets- two pierced the two sides of Eyasir's chest while another hit in the middle of his backbone from the backside.

Seeing the three signs of bullets, bereaved Bushra questioned, "How many bullets are needed to kill a person? Isn't one bullet enough?"

She, however, said when they were returning home with Eyasir's body by an ambulance, they were consoling each other saying Eyasir went to Jannat. "But the reality is we are missing him badly. As he embraced martyrdom, he will never return to us," sobbing Bushra said.

Talking about DMCH authorities' noncooperation over handing the body, Eyasir's Md Yusuf Sarker, a small businessman, said they did not give the death certificate showing the cause of postmortem, which needs written permission from the concerned police station.

As on that day, no police station was operative, he said the hospital authorities asked them to wait at least for two to three days. Later they received the body without autopsy and death certificate.

Recalling memories with his youngest son, Md Yusuf said, "I was undergoing treatment for cancer for a long time. Eyasir used to take me and his mother to doctors. He also used to help me run my apparel showroom in Shanir Akhra".

"He was very dynamic and vibrant. In the absence of Eyasir, my vibrant family turned into a lifeless one. An irreparable void and silence engulfed us," he said in a heavy voice.

Eyasir's bereaved father wanted trial for his son's killing and said every responsible person involved in the heinous murders during student-people uprising must be brought to justice.