Thursday
13 February, 2025
News Flash
News Flash
By Md Mamun Islam
RANGPUR, Feb 13, 2025 (BSS) - After losing her 35-year-old auto-rickshaw driver husband Shaheed Manik Mian, 23-year-old widow Most Munni Akhter is now facing uncertainty about their only son Md Minhajul Islam Siam, 2.
Manik embraced martyrdom in police firing while taking part in the anti-discrimination student movement along with hundreds of students and people in the Rangpur Model College Gate area on July 18 last year.
After her husband's martyrdom, everything in Munni's life changes rapidly. She doesn't know how to raise her son Siam, what to do, and where to live in this complex society.
Along with all the uncertainty, anxiety, and hardship, Munni Akhter has to leave her husband's house and start living with her poor daily wage laborer father.
He now lives with his son Siam in his father's house in Sadarpur village of Pairaband union in Mithapukur upazila of Rangpur.
Manik Mian, son of the late Sekendar Ali, was a resident of Purbo Ghaghot Para area of Ward No. 15 of Rangpur city.
His father died about 12 years ago, leaving behind about 30 decimals of the land in the Purbo Ghaghot Para area and a tin-shaded house on six decimals of the land.
His ailing mother Most Noorjahan Begum, 55, is a housewife.
Manik was the second child among two sons and two daughters of his parents.
Manik's elder sister Kulsum, 40, and younger sister Sheuly, 30, are married and live with their husbands.
Manik’s younger brother Ratan, 25, is also married and drives an auto-rickshaw to manage their family with his mother and wife.
In separate interviews with BSS recently at their respective residences, Munni Akhter, her father and her mother-in-law, and other relatives and neighbors narrated the incidents that happened to Manik and his family.
They said Manik Mian was a very gentle and polite youth. He was the only bread-earner for the family. Everyone in the family and adjoining areas loved him very much. He always tried to help others.
Due to extreme poverty, Manik could study up to the fifth grade.
Then he started driving a battery-powered auto rickshaw. Along with this, he launched a small tea stall on the land of others at Darshana Shutki Mour area in the city to assist his family.
At one stage, Manik married Munni Akhter in February, 2018 as per decisions of their respective families.
Munni was the youngest child among four sons and two daughters of her parents. All her day-labourer brothers and sister are married. Her mother Most Lailey Begum, 60, is a housewife.
Before her marriage, Munni studied up to the first year in the intermediate level at Pairaband Government Begum Rokeya Smritee Degree College in Mithapukur upazila.
"After our marriage, we lived in a joint family for three years. Then, Manik took me to Dhaka in 2020 to seek our fortunes amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. We had a dream of doing something better together," she said.
Manik managed a job for Munni at a garments factory and he started selling vegetables in the capital city.
“But, we couldn't stay in Dhaka because the income wasn't enough to live there in 2021. We had to return to Rangpur,” said Munni.
Manik started driving an auto-rickshaw again and opened a tea shop on someone else's land in the same Darshana Shutki More area. The couple worked together to run the tea shop.
Munni also looked after her cows and sheep to supplement her husband’s income.
Manik and Munni loved each other very much and were having a good time. They had a son two years ago. The couple had pinned all their hopes on their son Siam.
“Manik was participating in the anti-discrimination student movement programmes like rallies and protest processions since the beginning to drive away the fascist Sheikh Hasina regime,” Munni said.
Like everyday, Manik left home with his auto-rickshaw and went to the tea stall in the morning on July 18. After some time, Munni also went to their tea stall with son Siam.
“The overall situation turned volatile in Rangpur city like elsewhere in the country, after talented student of the Department of English of Begum Rokeya University Abu Sayeed was killed in police firing on July 16,” Munni said.
Manik frequently asked Munni to take part in the protest processions with the students to free the nation from the fascist hands of Sheikh Hasina.
“At 1:30 pm, Manik came back to the tea stall when I saw his reddish face and dirt on his body. He told me that police fired tear gas shells and opened gunfire on their processions in front of the Tajhat police station injuring some students,” Munni said.
He gave Munni Taka 25 and asked her to go to the Modern Mour area and take part in the processions.
“After giving him some food to eat, I went to the Modern Mour area and saw an injured student who had no money to go to Rangpur Medical College Hospital. I gave him Taka 25 and helped hire a rickshaw to go to the hospital,” Munni said.
Then, Munni soon returned when Manik again left the tea stall to join the anti-discrimination student movement processions at 3:30 pm leaving Munni and their son there.
Meanwhile, Munni learns that the police are engaged in intense pursuits, counter-chases, and attacks on the activists of the anti-discrimination student movement, and terrorists from the Chhatra League, Jubo League, and Awami League are also fighting with them.
At around 4:30 pm, some rushing people told Munni that one Manik was shot in police firing near the Rangpur Model College gate on the Rangpur-Dhaka Highway.
"I broke down and my son Siam started crying abnormally. Someone said that the Manik who was shot by the police was not my husband, but another Manik. I started calling Manik repeatedly with my mobile phone, which had also run out of charge," she said.
The anti-discrimination student movement activists and local people rushed Manik to Rangpur Medical College Hospital where he died around 6:30 pm on that day.
“Police created various problems in handing over the body of Manik. We got the body the next day at 2:30 pm under many conditions like burial should be completed before the Asr prayers. Our people had to do the same,” Munni said.
She said, "What was my husband's fault? Why was he killed? What answer will I give to my minor son, who still doesn't understand that his father will never come back? Who will comfort my child? I want exemplary justice for my husband's killers."
Manik's mother Noorjahan Begum is speechless after losing her child.
Being stunned by the loss of her son, Noorjahan just looks around and laments when she remembers Manik.
Noorjahan said, ‘My son Manik is not alive and my husband is no more. What will happen to my family? I seek justice.’
Manik’s younger sister Sheuly said, “Since the death of our father, my elder brother Manik was performing the duties of a father. But he was shot dead. Who will listen to the cries of my brother’s only son Siam? This pain is unbearable.”
Abdul Bari, uncle of Manik Mian, said, “Manik was a very good youth. He took part in the anti-discrimination movement and supplied water to the participants daily. We urge the interim government to do something for this helpless family.”
When asked, Munni said, so far, BNP Joint Secretary General Habib Un Nabi Khan Sohel has given Taka 40,000 to her mother-in-law for the family.
The Jamaat-e-Islami has given Taka 1.50 lakh to Munni and Taka 50,000 to her mother-in-law, Begum Rokeya University Taka 20,000 to her mother-in-law, Police Taka 50,000, Deputy Commissioner Taka 20,000, As-Sunnah Foundation Taka one-lakh, July foundation Taka 3.75 lakh to her and Taka 1.25 lakh to her mother-in-law.
Narrating her bitter experiences under the fascist regime after the martyrdom of her husband Manik on July 18, Munni called on the interim government to ensure exemplary punishment for her husband's killers.
“I request the interim government to give me a government job according to my qualifications so that I can raise my son Siam in the spirit of the July Revolution,” she said.
Munni said with teary eyes that she was proud of her husband Manik, who bravely sacrificed his life to free the nation from fascism.
