By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, Jan 1, 2025 (BSS) – Ibrahim Khalilullah, aged 13,  lived through extreme poverty since his childhood but his tender age could not understand the massive scale of cruel crackdown launched by law enforcement agencies to suppress the peaceful demonstration under the banner of Anti-discrimination Student Movement.  

Sakhina Bibi, mother of Ibrahim, was struggling to provide food for her children as she worked as a domestic help. But her two children remained starving many times in their daily lives as they were trapped in a cycle of poverty.      

This tragic story did not spare the 13-year-old boy Ibrahim - even on the day of his martyrdom as he went out hungry due to lack of food in his house when he was shot dead on July 19 during the anti-discrimination student movement.

Ibrahim's mother Sakhina Bibi wept as she recalled that her son was starving for shortage of food on the day of his death. She said, “How can I console myself that I could not manage a handful of rice for my son before his death?”

Noting that there was only a little flour in the house, she said, “I myself had starved on that day. Therefore, I was thinking of making roti with the flour for my son once he returned home”.

Ibrahim was a Hafezi (memorizing the Holy Quran) student at the Baitus Sujud Madrasah near his house in the Demra area. He had already memorized six paras (chapters) of the Holy Quran.

His elder brother Yakub Ali also completed memorizing the Holy Quran two years ago from the same Madrasah while he was pursuing education in Qawmi curriculum to become an Islamic scholar.

But, following his brother Ibrahim’s death, Yakub has been forced to stop his study and he took a job at a t-shirt showroom in the city’s Gulistan to run his family as his mother became sick and cannot work since Ibrahim’s martyrdom.

Recalling the struggles throughout her life, Sakhina told BSS that after her husband left her, she did not marry again thinking of her two sons.

She said she had a dream of making both of her sons Hafez while her elder son had succeeded to memorize the entire Holy Quran and he was studying in Nahumeer, equivalent to class eight, in Qaumi curriculum.

“But, my fate didn’t favor me. I lost my youngest son in the middle of fulfilling my dream,” weeping Sakhina said.

Describing the incident of Ibrahim’s martyrdom, she said in the morning of Friday (July 19), Ibrahim showed her a video of the anti-discrimination student movement that he captured from the Signboard area on Thursday.

Sakhina cannot confirm the date of her son’s martyrdom since she had no literacy knowledge, she recalled the day by name and mentioned that on that day the government imposed a nationwide curfew from 12midnight.  

“Watching the video, I verbally abused him and told him why did you go there? Is it a duty of underprivileged children like you? Did you go there to die? You should never go to this spot next time,” she said in an emotion-choked voice.

Responding to his mother’s instruction, Ibrahim assured of not going to see the movement, Sakhina said, “I again asked him not to go anywhere until I come back from work”.

After a while he went to the house of his maternal aunt in the neighborhood and was playing there, Ibrahim’s bereaved mother recalled and said, “After returning home, I saw he had showered and was preparing to go to the mosque to offer Jummah prayers”.

Returning home from the mosque, Ibrahim put on his Panjabi and went out of the house, but he did not say anything to his mother about where he was going.

However, when Sakhina was offering the Zohr prayers, in the middle of her prayers, she saw through the window that Ibrahim was coming towards home.

“Seeing my son come, I again started my prayers thinking that he would wait for my prayers to finish. But he did not wait, rather he went out again. Therefore, after completing prayers, I was looking for him in nearby areas, but I failed to find him,” she said.

“I was thinking that he might have gone somewhere near the house and will return soon. But he did not return. On that day I don’t know why I was very mournful. After Zohr prayers, I cried for a long time without any reason. At one stage, I felt sleepy and took a nap,” the sobbing mother said.

She recalled that she woke up at 4pm from sleep and was about to make meal for the children.

“In the meantime, I heard the azan of Asr prayer. Therefore, I thought of cooking after offering the Asr prayers. After the Asr prayer, I also cried again but could not sense that my son would leave us forever on that day,” Sakhina said.

“Soon after I completed the prayers, someone called me using my son’s mobile SIM card and gave me the saddest news of my life that my son was shot dead. His body was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH),” she burst into tears while saying this.

After hearing the news, she said, somehow she went to the Madrasah to inform her elder son about his brother’s death.

“I can remember that just after telling my elder son that your brother has died, I lost my consciousness,” the bereaved mother said.

As she gained consciousness, she along with her elder son went to DMCH to receive the body, but they could not manage to get the body on the day. They received the body of Ibrahim on the next day (Saturday) and buried him at Matuail graveyard.

Sakhina cannot confirm the location of Ibrahim’s death as they found the body in DMCH. She, however, said two signs of bullets were found on Ibrahim’s body- one in leg and another on the back side of his head.

Sakhina was losing control over her emotions while she was recalling her memories with Ibrahim as he used to condole his mother saying, “I will go abroad soon after memorizing the whole Holy Quran and send you money to lead a happy life”.

“Once I go abroad, you will have no sorrow. I will send money for you. You will build a three-storey building. And I will come home and will live in the house with you,” mourning mother quoted Ibrahim as he used to show this dream to his distressed mother.

Weeping Sakhina demanded justice over her son’s killing.