Jahirul Islam Shuvo. Photo: Collected

 
By Syed Altefat Hossain
 
DHAKA, Jan 30, 2025 (BSS) – The martyrdom of Jahirul Islam Shuvo, a 28-year-
old construction worker, in the massive uprising last year exposed his family to a 
state of total wilderness emotionally as well as financially.
 
Shuvo was shot dead when he joined the victory procession at Azampur in front 
of Uttara Purba Police Station in the city following the fall of nearly 16-year fascist 
regime on August 5 in 2024 in face of the student-people uprising.
 
The bullet pierced through his head, leaving his family with a devastating void that 
could never be filled.
 
The family’s suffering is compounded by the fact that they have no one left to 
turn to as Shuvo was the only son of his parents - Sirajul Islam (60), a cancer 
patient, and mother, Nazma Begum (50), who is a staff of a private TV channel 
while his only sister Marzina Akter, is a married woman.
 
Shuvo’s death, however, exposed his wife Ambia Begum (23) and only son Ariyan 
Islam (7) to an uncertain future; while his son would grow up seeing other 
children being loved by their father, a feeling he would never experience.
 
Shuvo’s mother wailed as this correspondent approached her for some words 
about her martyred son at their rented house at Matuail Uttarpara area residence 
at Jatrabari in the city.

“What was my son’s crime? Why did Allah take him from us? I have no other son 
to bury me when I die,” Nazma Begum burst into tears, saying her son went to his 
workplace in Uttara on that day.
 
She said she saw her son in dreams every night for the first three months after his 
death, but for the last two months she didn't see him in dreams.
 
“I badly miss my son’s call ‘Ki go Ma. Ma, Assalamu Alaikum”. Now no one calls 
me ‘Ma’ with adoration like him,” weeping Nazma said, adding, Shuvo used to 
address her with the greeting ‘Assalamu Alaikum’ whenever he left or entered the 
home.
 
Noting that they rented the two-room posh flat thinking of their son’s comfort, 
she said, “I didn't enter the room, where Shuvo used to live, for the last five 
months”.
 
“I could not sleep at night thinking of my son. We rented this house for my son 
only. But now who will live here?” grief stricken Nazma lamented.
 
Shuvo’s 23-year-old widow, Ambia Begum, is now staring at a bleak future 
finding no means to support her and her child. Ambia has been forced to move to 
her parents’ house in Panchagarh.
 
“My mother-in-law has nothing to support even themselves. I feel like a burden 
now. I don’t know how I would survive with my son,” Ambia said, her voice heavy 
with sorrow.
 
She said they received Taka 5 lakh from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation --
Taka 2.5 lakh for her and Taka 2.5 lakh for her mother-in-law -- but no amount of 
money can replace a life.
 
“I am bewildered by losing my husband at this early age . . . I have no words to 
express my pain . . . if my husband was alive, we might have struggled, but at least 
we could see each other,” Ambia lamented.
 
Ariyan has been enrolled in a local school at Panchagarh, she said and sought 
prayers for her son.
 
As Shuvo’s life was cut short by a bullet, leaving behind a grieving family that has 
since struggled to survive without their sole provider, his father Sirajul Islam said 
Shuvo’s death caused unimaginable sufferings to them.
 
“Shuvo was our only breadwinner. His death has left us in a financial crisis. My 
wife’s salary is not enough to maintain the family, so we’re thinking of moving to 
a cheaper house,” he said, adding, they have no scope to return to their village 
home at Char Sultani in Bhola district as river erosion devoured their home.
 
Shuvo’s grieving mother Nazma tearfully recalled her son’s final morning.
 
“When I left for work early that day, Shuvo was still sleeping. I told him to close 
the door after I left the house. Before I left for work, he held my shoulder and 
warned me, saying, “Ma, please be cautious. The streets aren’t safe. I didn’t 
realize that would be his final farewell,” she said in a trembling voice.
Nazma said her son, however, left the house for his workplace in Uttara around 
11am.
 
Her world fell apart when she returned home that evening. The city streets were 
chaotic, filled with violence and turmoil when members of law enforcement 
agencies were firing indiscriminately at the cheering people across the city after 
ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country.
 
Despite warnings from her husband and office security, Nazma took the risk to 
return home, navigating through alleys to avoid the danger.
 
“I left my office in Wari in the city around 3pm. On the way home, I saw many 
bodies being taken to hospital from the Jatrabari area. When I reached Jatrabari, I 
was bewildered as a bullet hurled from Mayor Hanif Flyover killed a boy just 
beside me,” Nazma recalled the terrible situation on the streets on that day.
 
She said: “As, at that time, I feared losing my life in the turmoil and my mobile had 
no balance, I convinced a woman to use her mobile to make a call to my daughter 
and asked my daughter to call her brother and ask him to stay safe”.
 
“When I reached home around 5:30pm, my husband told me that somebody 
from Uttara Crescent Hospital had called, asking him to receive a body. At first, I 
couldn’t understand. But when we called back, the person told us that our son, 
Shuvo, died of bullet injury there,” weeping Nazma said.
 
He had given his father’s mobile number to the students, who took him to the 
hospital, before he breathed his last, she added.
 
Later, Shuvo’s uncle and cousins went to the hospital and brought his body home 
that night with just a token from the hospital and he was laid to eternal rest at 
Matuail Graveyard the next morning (August 6).
 
Nazma demanded capital punishment of those who killed her son.
“I lost my son, the biggest wealth of my life. Where will I find my son? I lost 
everything by losing him,” she said.