Syed Altefat Hossain  

DHAKA, Jan 18, 2025 (BSS) – Obaidul Islam, a 53-year-old CNG-run auto-rickshaw driver, joined the victory procession in the city’s Jatrabari area following the collapse of nearly 16-year fascist regime on August 5 last year that emerged as a ray of hope and freedom.
 
Yet, his participation in the victory procession that followed Sheikh Hasina's ousting -- in face of the student people uprising -- turned into a heartbreaking tragedy. When he was shot dead in front of Jatrabari Police Station, it left his family devastated and struggling to survive.
 
According to family members, Obaidul left his rented house in Gobindapur area of Shanir Akhra that afternoon to join the victory procession in Jatrabari.
 
“My father went to Jatrabari to join the victory procession after Sheikh Hasina fled the country. But he was shot dead by police in front of Jatrabari Police Station around 3pm,” Obaidul’s only son Mazharul Islam (26) said at an interview with BSS at their Gobindapur residence recently.
 
Recounting the memory, Obaidul’s only daughter Mithila said a friend of her father -- Kamal, who is also a CNG run auto-rickshaw driver -- came to their house around 3pm on that day and informed them that their father sustained bullet injuries.
 
“Kamal uncle told us that he had called my father to ask him to join the victory procession, but someone received the phone and said the owner of the phone was shot dead in Jatrabari area,” Mithila recalled.
 
As they could not know where his father was taken, Mazharul recalled their frantic search for two days, to locate his father’s body.
 
Visiting several hospitals, including Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mugda Medical College and Hospital, they finally found Obaidul’s body at Mitford Hospital on August 6.
 
“We, however, received my father’s body without any death certificate. When we asked the director of the hospital for the death certificate, he said it required a postmortem. But on that day it was near impossible to perform the medical protocol for unnatural deaths,” Mazharul said.
 
He said he did not wait for the autopsy because the body was already swollen.

“Later, we took my father’s body to our ancestral home in Muradnagar Upazila of Cumilla and laid him to eternal rest at our family graveyard there on August 6,” Mazharul said.
 
He said his father used to join the street protest from the beginning of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, but it was beyond their imagination that he would face such a tragic end.
 
As Obaidul was the key breadwinner of his family, his death exposed them to extreme financial crisis.
 
Obaidul’s wife, Mariam Begum (45), recounted the devastating impact of his death. As the family’s primary breadwinner’s sad demise plunged them into financial uncertainty.

Mazharul, who previously worked at a factory, lost his job due to extended mourning. “I am now jobless, and my mother is chronically ill. We don’t know how we will survive,” Mazharul said as his face was clouded with uncertainty.
 
Mariam echoed the dire situation. “We are entirely dependent on our relatives’ help. Without their mercy, we cannot make ends meet,” she said, pointing her finger at some essentials she was given by her relatives from village home.
 
The family of Obaidul urged the government for providing employment facilities as they are suffering from financial hardship. 

“My only son is unemployed. I have no way to survive. If the government arranges a suitable job for my son, it will help my family get back on their feet,” Mariam added.

The grief-stricken family demands justice for Obaidul and the countless others, who lost their lives during the uprising. They demanded capital punishment of the killers.