By Md Mamun Islam
 
RANGPUR, Dec 30, 2024 (BSS) –  Future of Jitu Begum, 23, is eventually trapped  by losing her husband and she is passing her difficult time with five-year-old only daughter Sinha.

Having lost her husband Sajjad Hossain, 27, to just one bullet during the fascist Sheikh Hasina regime, Jitu Begum, 23, now fears an uncertain future for their five-year-old only daughter Sinha.

Sajjad Hossain, 27, husband of Jitu Begum, scarified his life to free the nation from deep rooted fascism meaning all levels of people jointed the protest under the banner of Anti-discrimination student movement, which had turned it into mass uprising.   

The student-led mass uprising forced Sheikh Hasina to resign and she fled the country on August 5.            
They lived happily on Shaheed Sajjad's meager earnings from selling vegetables and fruits as a seasonal roadside vendor. They had no ambitions other than to raise their only daughter as a properly educated citizen.
 
However, everything in their lives was shattered when Sajjad was shot dead by police while he was taking part in the invincible anti-discrimination student-people movement on July 19, near the Over Bridge point in front of Rangpur City Market.
 
Now a weeping Jitu Begum often asks, “How do I raise our daughter Sinha? How can I convince Sinha that her father will never return when she lies awake, hoping to sleep with her head on her father’s chest?”
 
While talking to BSS at their home in Kamal Kachna area in Rangpur city, Shaheed Sajjad's family members and relatives narrated the tragic incident that happened to him on July 19 and the subsequent situation.
 
Sajjad’s father Yusuf Ali died five years ago.
 
His widowed mother Moyna Begum, 56, has been suffering from many diseases, including weakness, low blood pressure and malnutrition.
 
Yusuf and Moyna had five children, including three daughters and two sons.
 
Their eldest daughter, Babli Begum, studied till 10th grade and then got married. Her husband Ali Hossain, 47, is an employee at ASOD Training Center in Rangpur city. They have a daughter and a son.
 
The second daughter, Labani Begum, 32, studied up to the 10th grade and then married Abul Hakim, 40. The couple works in a garment factory in Dhaka and lives there with their two sons.
 
The third daughter, Barna Begum, 30, studied up to the 10th grade and then married Abu Bakar, 32. The couple has two children. They work in a garment factory in Dhaka and live there.
 
Sajjad Hossain was the fourth of his parents' five children. Due to poverty, Sajjad had to finish his education while studying in class six.

 
The fifth and youngest child of Yusuf Ali-Moyna Begum couple is their son Safin Mian, 24. He couldn’t continue studies after class five.
 
Safin married Ashika Begum, 22. The couple has a daughter. Safin works as an employee in a fruit shop in Rangpur City Market.
 
The families of Sajjad and Safin with their mother Moyna Begum live separately in their tin-roofed two-room tiny house on only two decimals of land by sharing one room each.
 
Sajjad married Jitu Begum seven years ago on November 17, 2017. The couple has only daughter Zanhobi Akhter Sinha, 5.
 
Sinha has just passed the play-group exam at Bismillah Academy Madrasa and will soon be admitted to the nursery group there.
 
Shaheed Sajjad earned livelihoods by selling vegetables or fruits in the city in a van cart as a seasonal roadside vendor. He also worked as a helper to the masons at construction sites.
 
Jitu Begum studied up to class ten. Her father Jahangir Alam, 60, of Ansarir Mour in Mahiganj Satmatha area in Rangpur city is a bicycle repairer.  She has two sisters and a brother. 
 
Since losing her husband Shaheed Sajjad in the police firing during the then autocratic fascist Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's regime on July 19, Jitu Begum still cries and fails to concentrate on family work.
 
She said Shaheed Sajjad went to Rangpur City Market in the morning, purchased vegetables and came home leaving his purchased vegetables there.
 
She said, “I was at my father’s house on July 19. After offering Juma prayers, Sajjad ate lunch in a hotel. He was supposed to pick me up from my father's house to take me to a wedding reception at night in the city.”
 
The last time Jitu Begum spoke to Sajjad was around noon. At that time, they talked about his offering Friday prayers, taking a little rest, and then bringing back his bought vegetables home in the afternoon for sale the next day.
 
“Sajjad told me that he will pick me up from my father’s home in the evening and take me to the wedding reception. That was the last time I spoke to him,” Jitu said.
 
While narrating all these incidents, Jitu and her mother-in-law Moyna Begum sitting beside her, broke down in tears.
 
“How will my family with my daughter and ailing mother-in-law and a niece run now without you (Sajjad)? Who will bring breakfast to my daughter and pay for her Madrasa education expenses?” Jitu continued to lament as she cried.
 
Sajjad's brother-in-law Ali Hossain told BSS that after offering Juma prayers, eating lunch and taking a little rest on July 19, Sajjad went to the City Market to bring his previously bought vegetable home.
 
“Shaheed Sajjad was trapped inside the City Market as the whole area outside there turned into a battlefield creating a fearful situation,” Ali said.
 
The circumstances in Rangpur city turned volatile after the martyrdom of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed in police firing on July 16 during the anti-discrimination student movement procession.
 
The anti-discrimination student movement and different political parties previously announced to bring out protest processions in the streets on July 19.
 
From around 3:30 pm, many processions came out from different areas and passed the streets through Jahaz Company Intersection, Payra Chattar, Over Bridge and City Market, and were moving towards the Zilla School in the city.
 
Around 4 pm, the mass protest marches of the anti-discrimination student-people movement tried to move towards the Over Bridge, City Market and the surrounding areas.
    
Quoting narratives of eyewitnesses, Ali said, “Sajjad also joined the protest processions of the anti-discrimination student-people uprising by this time leaving his vegetables inside the City Market.”
 
At the moment, the police opened fire from APC vehicles and threw rubber bullets, sound grenades and tear gas shells at the processions creating a frightening and deadly situation developed in the entire area.
 
“As I came to know, bullets fired by the police from the Rangpur City Corporation Gate precisely killed four people one by one in a row. Sajjad was the fourth among the four martyred national heroes,” he said.
 
“I first got the news at 5:15 pm when someone called me from Sajjad’s mobile phone set and told me that Sajjad had been shot by the police. The caller advised me to go to Rangpur Medical College Hospital to collect the body,” Ali said.
 
Ali informed his mother-in-law Moyna Begum and brother-in-law Safin Mian about Shaheed Sajjad's death.  
 
“Later, I went to the hospital with necessary documents and returned to my in-law's home with the body at 9 pm,” Ali said.
 
“While washing Sajjad’s body, I found one bullet entered his body between his waist and armpit, on the right side of his rib cage, and exited through the other side, piercing the bone of his left hand. I have taken photos of the bullet-riddled body,” he said.
 
The next day on July 20, the Namaz-e-Janaza of Sajjad was held at 10 am and the body was buried at Shalbon Mistripara Graveyard at 11 am.
 
At present, looking at the face of innocent minor girl Sinha, no one seems to be able to speak. There is now an isolated calm in the family, which is beset with worries about a gloomy future.
 
Losing her husband, Jitu is now speechless. Everyone, stunned by grief, keeps stopping at a question asked by Sinha, the child who is looking for Sajjad. Sinha's question is 'When will my father come home?' But none can answer it.
 
Jitu said their daughter Sinha keeps awake at night, waiting to sleep with her head on her father's chest. Sinha believes that her father will return home and hug her and kiss her forehead affectionately as before.
 
“Sinha believes that her father will buy breakfast from the shop and take her by the hand to the Madrasa as before. With that hope, Sinha has been waiting for her father. She fell asleep while waiting until late at night,” Jitu said.
 
Shaheed Sajjad had a small family consisting of five members including his wife, only daughter, mother and a nine-year old niece Jui.
 
Sajjad’s mother Moyna Begum said, “My son went to the market to bring vegetables for business. He returned home as a dead body. Our family was running on Sajjad's money. I don't know how the family will run now.
 
“My granddaughter Sinha always cries for father. My son loved his daughter very much. She never slept without his father,” she said and called on the interim government to cooperate with Sinha and Jitu Begum for their survival.
 
Jitu Begum said, so far, BNP Joint Secretary General Habib Un Nabi Khan Sohel has come to their house and given her Taka 40,000.
 
The Jamaat-e-Islami has given Taka two-lakh, Rangpur City Corporation Taka 50,000, Rangpur Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Rabiul Faisal Taka 20,000, and the July Smriti Foundation has given her Taka five-lakh.
 
Narrating her bitter experience she had to pass through during the fascist regime after the martyrdom of her husband Shaheed Sajjad on July 19, she urged the interim government to ensure exemplary punishment to the killers of her husband.
 
“I request the interim government to take responsibility for my daughter Sinha, ailing mother-in-law Moyna Begum and niece Jui,” she said, adding that her husband Sajjad sacrificed his life heroically to free the nation from fascism and discrimination.