By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, Dec 10, 2024 (BSS) - Mariya Sultana is deeply shocked and faces bleak future as her husband Md Nazmul Kazi embraced martyrdom when massive crackdown was launched on peaceful demonstration of the anti-discrimination student movement.

Severe financial hardship engulfed life of Maria as she is struggling to maintain her daily life.

She (wife of Nazmul) is seeing uncertain future with two and a half year old daughter as lone breadwinner Md Nazmul Kazi sacrificed his life for the greater interest of nation.

Nazmul, 34, a former chemical businessman, was beaten to death on July 18 when he went to the Shanirakhra area of Jatrabari in the city to distribute dry foods and water among the protesting students, noticing a Facebook status demanding foods for agitators.

He was killed at a time when Jatrabari and its all surrounding areas turned into a battleground as the student-led mass uprising ascended to the peak aimed at ousting autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina.

"My husband was a very kind person. Seeing a facebook post that the agitating students were in need of dry foods and water, he went out of the house around 4pm for Shanirakhra," Nazmul's bereaved wife Mariya Sultana recalled.

She said: "I also wanted to go to the movement with my husband. But as my daughter was only two-year-old then, he barred me from going".

But around an hour later, she said a student called her mentioning, "We sent your husband to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) as he received critical injury."

Referring to eyewitnesses, teary Mariya said some people hit on Nazmul's head with something heavy when he was distributing foods and water among the protesters. But she cannot confirm the identity of the people. After beating him, the assaulters even snatched away his mobile phone.

"Being informed, I immediately rushed to the DMCH and found my husband's body on a stretcher in a room with two other corpses," wailing Mariya said and blamed the hospital authority for not giving proper treatment to her husband.

"Though my husband sustained a critical injury on his head, he was left like an abandoned one even without a bandage on the wounded part of his head. When I was screaming standing beside my husband's body, some doctors came and declared him dead," Mariya burst into tears while sharing her heartbreaking story of losing her husband.

When Nazmul was immediately taken to Anabil Hospital at Shanirakhra, she said, the hospital authority referred him to DMCH without giving even first-aid.

"Later, we came to know that the previous Awami League government asked the hospital authorities not to provide any treatment to injured people of the movement," Nazmul's sobbing wife said.

Talking about the then situation of the hospital, Surovi Sohana, manager of Salman Hospital at Shanirakhra, said during the protest, police of Jatrabari Police Station seized hard disks of CCTV cameras of the hospital and harassed the authorities for serving the people injured in the movement.

Recalling the dilly-dallying from the DMCH authority over discharging the body, wailing Mariya said, "We had to face different types of harassment to get the body. We got the body around 4pm on July 19".

She also said they had even faced obstacles on the highway when they were taking the body to their village in Muradnagar Upazila of Cumilla. Later, Nazmul was laid to eternal rest around at the family graveyard there.

Nazmul was the only breadwinner of his three-member family living in the Mohammadbag area of Rayerbag in Jatrabari and a prime contributor to his parents and two brothers' family, in Muradnagar Upazila in Cumilla district.

While visiting his house in Mohammadbag, it was observed that his wife and now two and five month-old daughter Ariyana Kazi Nuzaira were living in a two-room apartment there.

Nazmul's wife informed that her father-in-law Selim Kazi, mother-in-law Nazma Begum and brothers-in-law Sajarul (26) and Hamza (19) are living in their village home in Cumilla.

Mariya said her husband had a dream of going to Canada. Therefore, Nazmul shut his business one year back and was visiting different countries as part of preparation to get the Canadian visa.

In the morning on the day of his martyrdom, Nazmul had submitted his documents to Maldives and Sri Lankan embassies for visit visa. "Now these documents are nothing but memories to me," Nazmul's sobbing wife said.

"My husband was our only resort. When parents lose their one child, they might have more children to call them Maa (mom) and Baba (dad). But when a child loses his/her father, is it possible to get him back? My daughter lost her father at the age when she cannot even recognize her father," weeping Mariya added.

Noting that she is now going through a very dire situation, she said, "My father had died years back while I have no brother that I would get support from. I have only a sister and her husband. But how much will they look after me?"

She, however, said she has no scope to get support from her father-in-laws' family as they are also in need.

"As my husband had a dream of making our daughter a doctor, I am now seeing darkness over materializing his dream since I have no scope to join a job keeping my little girl," Mariya said in an emotion-choked voice.

Nazmul's wife was observed suffering from a dilemma over her future course of action as living in the city is very costly on one hand and it is also not possible to go to parents-in-law's house.

"How can I make you understand the anguish of becoming a widow at the age of 24?" she wondered while an uncertainty was reflected on her face.
 
Seeking cooperation from the government, Mariya said, "The interim government should do something as soon as possible for distressed women like us. The next government, whoever comes to power, should also remember the Shaheed families at least thinking about the orphan children".

She demanded trial of all killings during the student-people uprising and said, "Many innocent people were killed in front of me. The government should bring all the killers to justice. None can understand the pain except those who lose. We have to endure the endless agony for the rest of our life".

Mariya said she is now somehow running the family with Taka 1 lakh that was given by Jamaat-e-Islami.

"But, I don't know how I will run in the days to come. Though the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had given a cheque for Taka 10 lakh along with other Shaheed families before her downfall, I cannot cash the cheque as I had no NID at that time," she said and sought cooperation from the Chief Adviser's Office to cash the cheque.

Talking to BSS, Nazmul's father Selim Kazi, 50, said they are facing financial hardship since his son's death.

"My son used to send Taka 20,000 per month for running my family here in Muradnagar. But his death made us helpless," he said, adding, he is now running the family by selling milk of a cow.

Selim said he is now sending his youngest son to Saudi Arabia with an overseas job by borrowing money as he has no alternative to run the family.
"Nazmul was a very good and simple person. I badly miss his call "Abba". Though I have two more sons, I don't get the taste of his call," teary Selim said, adding, all people of their village mourned his death.