By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, Dec 14, 2024 (BSS) - Septuagenarian Kaniz Fatema does not know about ultimate result of her endless waiting as her beloved son Md Parvez Miah left forever on August 5.

Parvez, a 31-year-old garment worker, was killed "by police" when he joined the victory procession along with thousands of other people in the city's Jatrabari area following the downfall of autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina.

For Fatema, the pain of losing her sole support and her reason for happiness has become an unbearable weight.

"Since, my beloved son's death I cannot sleep at night. I feel he will return home from his workplace and call me to open the gate as he used to do," Fatema burst into tears while sharing her agony as this correspondent approached her for some words about her martyred son at their Matuail Paschimpara area residence at Jatrabari in the city.

She said she used to wait in their house every night for her son's return from the workplace.
 
"My son used to come home at night and call me with a sweet voice "Ammu, please, open the gate, I will sleep". But now no one calls me to open the gate. However, I still wait for him at night," Fatema said with a heart weighed down by grief.

A poor and landless family from Khulna, Fatema and her husband, Khokan Miah, started living in a rented house in the Matuail area of Jatrabari 30 years ago. Khokan, a construction worker, died 28 years ago, leaving Fatema to raise six children on her own.

To lessen her struggle, she even had to give up two daughters for adoption. Despite her hardships, she raised her son Parvez and three other daughters with resilience, instilling values of hard work and family devotion in her children.

Parvez, the youngest of six siblings, began working at 14 to help his mother financially. He remained her strongest pillar of support, even divorcing his wife to care for his mother Fatema.

"Though I endured indescribable anguish since my husband's death, my son had lessened that agony and gave me the taste of happiness. Unfortunately it has been cut short," Fatema said while she was slapping her forehead from the endless grief.

Parvez's mother described him as a hardworking and selfless person. Despite his meager earnings, he made sure his mother was taken care of.

"He worked tirelessly, even on holidays, to meet my needs and keep me happy and well," Fatema said, adding, he even took care of his sisters within his limited ability.

Recalling Parvez's devotion to her, she said in a sobbing tone, "My son loved me a lot. He used to play the song "Khudar Pore Ai Ontore Achhe Amar Amma (my mother occupied my heart just after Almighty Allah)" on a loudspeaker. Only Allah and I know what I lost."

Fatema, however, is suffering from a mental agony as she could not feed her son his favorite food before his death.

"Before his death, my son asked for Halua made of split peas, but I was too unwell to prepare it. Now I have Halua, but my son is no longer here to eat it," she lamented.

Parvez's death, however, left his mother in a dire financial situation as he was the only resort for his mother since all of his five sisters were married off and living in separate places with their own families.

Fatema is now struggling to survive, relying on her daughters and monetary assistance from political parties like Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, who gave Taka 2.10 lakh and BNP's Taka 72,000 as aid.

Noting that her two legs are broken and she needs medicine of Taka 6,000 every month, Fatema said she is now meeting her medicine cost through bank interest given on the fund donated by Jamaat.

Recounting Parvez's memory on the days of uprising, Fatema said her son was resentful over the suppression of the students staging demonstration under the banner of anti-discrimination student movement.

She recalled one day Parvez asked her, "Won't Sheikh Hasina keep alive any young person? She is killing all people. I witnessed some people's deaths in shootings." At that time Fatema barred him from even attending office.

She said her son went out of the house around afternoon on August 5 to join the victory procession over the downfall of the nearly 16 years of autocracy. Since then he had remained missing.

"I myself searched for my son from the afternoon of August 5 to until evening on August 6. Being failed to find him, I went to eldest daughter Nazma Akter Bristy's house and informed her," she burst into tears while recalling the heart-wrenching incident.

Recalling their frantic search for her brother, Brishty said, "We also joined the victory procession around 4pm on the day. But we didn't know that Parvez had gone to Jatrabari".

However, hearing heartbreaking news, Brishty said she tried to reach Parvez over the phone. But failing, they posted a status on social media about his disappearance.

"Later, we went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and found my brother's body among many other corpses at the hospital morgue," Brishty said in a composed tone while she was observed trying to control her emotion.

At that time, she said, the morgue staff revealed they had received over 300 bodies from Mugda Medical College and Hospital on August 5 while Parvez's body was among them.

Parvez's family, however, faced hostility and resistance in claiming the body from the hospital.

"When we claimed my brother's body, the hospital authority didn't want to hand over the body, rather they misbehaved with us. Finally, some university students helped us get the body around 12midnight (early hours of August 7)," said Brishty.

Later, they laid Parvez to eternal rest at the Matuail Graveyard around 8am on August 7.

Describing the place and spot of Parvez's martyrdom, Brishty said they have been confirmed by watching a video and analyzing medical documents that Parvez was shot around 2.30pm in front of Jatrabari Police Station and breathed his last around 7pm at Mugda hospital.

In the video that went viral on social media, police were seen coming out from Jatrabari Police Station in troops, hunting down the protesters on the street and shooting them like birds.

According to family members, at that time, Parvez was trying to hide himself under a pillar of Mayor Hanif Flyover just opposite to the police station to escape bullets, but failed.

"After receiving the body, we saw his chest was riddled with many rubber bullets while he was hit by two live bullets- one pierced through his left wrist and another hit his same arm," Brishty said.

"We also observed in the video that a policeman was confirming my brother's death by poking him with a stick," she added.

Besides, they found Parvez's body covered with the bed sheet of Mugda hospital while a band was found on one of his hands mentioning the time of his death around 7pm on August 5.