By Syed Altefat Hossain
 
DHAKA, Dec 7, 2024 (BSS) – Three and a half-year-old son of Md Jahangir Mridha, who embraced martyrdom during the July-August mass uprising, is still waiting for his father’s return. 
 
 “When my little boy Md Shanto wants to know about his father’s whereabouts, I console him saying that he went to our village home. In fact, when my son asks about his father, I feel like it is better to die than to live such a life,” Jahangir’s wife Mst Laizu burst into tears while sharing her endless agony with BSS.
 
Jahangir was shot dead on July 19 in the Kutubkhali area of Jatrabari in the city when the student-led mass uprising reached its peak with the participation of people from all strata turning Jatrabari and its surrounding areas into a battleground to oust autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina.
 
According to eyewitnesses, police and supporters of Awami League (AL) and its associated bodies used lethal arms against the unarmed protesters to suppress the movement, leaving a large number of people killed and severely injured in the area.
 
Amid curfew, the demonstrating people didn’t leave the streets until the autocratic government’s downfall on August 5, ending about 16 year-long fascist rule of Shekh Hasina.
 
Recalling the then ruling party’s fascist behavior towards them even after her husband’s death, Laizu said, “When we went to the village for the burial of my husband, some AL-men vandalized different furniture in our house there”.
 
They searched for money in the almirah, and became more destructive as they failed to get even a penny, she said.
 
“At one stage, they wanted to vandalize our freeze, which we bought by saving money compromising our basic needs. But our house owner saved it, by requesting them fervently,” Jahangir’s sobbing wife said, pointing her figure at the freeze at her house.
 
While visiting the bereaved family, this correspondent found Jahangir’s wife along with her two sons and Jahangir’s younger sister living in a two room flat in the Rayerbag area while some of the furniture in the house were seen broken.
 
Jahangir’s elder son Md Sujan (24) has emerged as the lone breadwinner of the family since his father’s martyrdom. He is working at a sawmill in the Rayerbag bus-stop area with a monthly salary of Taka 15,000.
 
Sujan said his father was a rickshaw-van puller. As everything was closed during the anti-discrimination student movement, his father had no work. Therefore, he used to take part in the movement with the students.
 
“On July 18, when I was returning home from my workplace, I found that my father was helping student demonstrators in Rayerbag bus-stop in the afternoon. At that time I scolded him saying, why are you here? You should stay at home as the situation is very bad,” teary son of Jahangir recalled his father’s contribution to the student-people uprising.
 
Sujan however said his father didn’t pay attention to his words; rather he was with the protesters on the street.
 
Recounting his memory with his father on July 19, Sujan said, “My father gave me Taka 50 in the morning before leaving the house to take my younger brother to a barber shop to give him a haircut”
 
“When I told my father that Taka 50 was not enough for cutting hair, he asked me to take the rest of the money from my mother,” Jahangir’s bereaved son said, adding that at that time his father went to Kutubkhali to join the student movement.

“Around 10.30am, someone gave a call to my mother from my father’s mobile and said “the owner of this mobile was shot dead in the Kutubkhali area” my mother was shopping in the kitchen market then,” Sujan said in an emotion-choked voice.
 
“Hearing the news, I immediately rushed to the spot and found my father lying on the floor of a pharmacy just opposite to Kutubkhali Boro Madrasah,” Jahangir’s teary son said, adding, later, with the help of some people he took his father’s body to their house in Rayerbag.
 
As his father was shot dead on the spot, Sujan said they took the body to their village home in Bauphal Upazila of Patuakhali district on the same day and buried him at their family graveyard.
 
He claimed that police fired the bullet targeting his father as it was observed that the bullet penetrated through the middle of the backside of his father’s head and lodged inside.
 
“His brain came out through the hole of the bullet,” Sujan’s face faded while he was sharing the memory of the brutal killing.
 
Noting that his father’s sudden death left them distraught, he said, “Our financial condition was not well even when my father was alive. Therefore, I joined work, stopping my education. However, we were enjoying a happy life amid financial limitation”.
 
“But my father’s death emerged as a bolt from the blue. We are now bewildered about how we will run the family with my little earning,” Sujan added.
 
Recalling her husband’s struggle to manage daily meals for the family, wailing Laizu said, “My husband was very good. Though we were struggling with economic hardship, we were very happy with our two sons. But I became hapless after losing my husband”.
 
She said they are now totally dependent on her elder son while it’s very hard to live in the city with such a little income (Taka 15,000) as they have to pay Taka 6,000 as house rent.
 
“I have been going through a tough time for four months since my husband’s death as you know that living in the city is very costly,” a sign of deep anxiety was reflected in the face of Laizu while sharing her anguish.

Noting that her husband did not have even a piece of land of his own, she said, “We don’t have any scope to live in the village as there is no house of ours. Though my husband got a small piece of land as ancestral property, it is not enough for making a house as his elder brother grabbed some parts of the land illegally”.
 
Jahangir’s bewildered wife sought help from the government to recover the encroached part of the inherent land.
 
She also sought cooperation from the government to run her family and said the government should take responsibility for her younger son’s education.
 
“We didn’t get any assistance from the government. Only Jamaat-e-Islami donated us Taka 2 lakh, with which we paid the loan that we took for taking my husband’s body to village and arrange Kulkhwani,” saddened Laizu said.
 
Pointing out that she has been very sick since her husband’s demise, she said, “Due to financial hardship, I could not see a doctor as I cannot afford the cost of medical tests”.
 
Jahangir’s distressed wife added: “There is none except Allah to pat hands on my sons’ heads as we are from a very lower class and a poor-income family”.
 
The family members of Jahangir, however, demanded trial of those who are responsible for killing Jahangir.
 
“We want trial of Sheikh Hasina as the killings took place at her order,” weeping Laizu said while her son said, “We also want trial of Obaidul Quader, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and the police of Jatrabari Police Station, who shot my father”.
 
Jahangir’s sister Rajia Begum, who is living with Jahangir’s family said, “Ever since I have been abandoned by my husband, my brother Jahangir was bearing all of my expenses. But at the death of my brother, I became hapless”.
 
She also wanted trial of the killers of her brother and said, “We want to see Sheikh Hasina to walk the gallows. And I would like to request the government of India to extradite Sheikh Hasina –
who took shelter in India after the fall of the Awami League government through a students-led mass upsurge on August 5 – to face the consequences of her deeds.