By Md Aynal Haque

JOYPURHAT, Dec 15 2024 (BSS) - Rita Akter, 17, was very ambitious about bringing financial solvency to her poverty-stricken family through building herself as a worthy citizen of the nation.

Rita, daughter of Ashraf Ali, 52, and Rehena Bibi, 45, hailing from Talkhur village under Kalai Upazila in Joypurhat district, was a first-year higher secondary student of the science group at Mirpur Duaripara Government College in Dhaka. 
 
Rickshaw-puller Ashraf Ali, along with his family members, came to Dhaka with a hope to attain economic emancipation apart from ensuring a better education for their daughter Rita.

Ashraf, who had a dream to make his daughter a doctor, used to hope that one day his daughter Rita would take responsibility for the family and bring financial solvency to them.

But it is now an irony that a killer bullet shattered all the hopes and aspirations diminishing Rita's dreams of becoming a doctor and the parents' hope of getting back financial solvency of the poverty-stricken family.
 
Ashraf Ali, a rickshaw puller, and his wife, Rehena Bibi, a domestic help, used to live in a rented house at Mirpur-2 in Dhaka.
 
Among the three children of the couple, Rita was the second. Her elder brother, Rakibul Islam, 22, is a day laborer, and her younger brother, Rokon Islam, 11, is a student of class six at a local high school.

Talking to BSS Ashraf said Rita left the house to join the anti-discrimination student movement around 11 am on August 5 after her parents went out of the house for work.
 
When they returned home, they could not find their daughter. After a few hours, they got the news that Rita received a bullet injury. Hearing this, they left the house to find out where their daughter was.

After frantic searches here and there, they finally identified Rita's body at Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital around 10 pm on the day.
Referring to the remarks of her co-fighters, Rehena said a bullet shot by police pierced the right side of her daughter's skull (head) and went out through the left side, damaging the brain badly. She succumbed to her injuries at 6:05 pm.
After receiving a death certificate from the hospital, they returned to their village home with the body on the following day and buried the body in the village graveyard.
 
Following the martyrdom of Rita, her parents became bewildered and they have yet to return to normal life.
Particularly, the mother of Rita is still shell-shocked after her daughter's death. The grieving mother demanded the death penalty of the killers.

Rita's father was losing control of his emotions when he was showing Rita's belongings, even her blood-stained dress.
 
He said their daughter always supported the anti-discrimination student movement and wished for its success.

Ashraf said, "My daughter used to tell me, 'Abba (dad), please endure sadness for some more years; once I become a doctor, all your sadness will be wiped out.".

"I badly miss my sister. I have been in trauma for over three months... and I have been crying for her every day since her death," said Rokon Islam, 12, Rita's younger brother.
 
He still feels his sister's existence; he said, "I cannot think that she is no more, and she will never come to us."