By Syed Altefat Hossain  

DHAKA, Feb 27, 2025 (BSS) – Abdul Ahad’s parents shifted their residence from Jatrabari’s Rayerbag to a government staff quarter at Mirpur in the city after losing their four-year-old son in the July Uprising.

But the family is stuck with profound shock as the sweet memories of Ahad still haunt them continuously.

“Since the flat was carrying the bloody memory of our little son, it was impossible for us to live there,” said Ahad’s grief stricken father Abul Hasan.

Abdul Ahad, assumed to be the youngest among the martyrs of 2024 July Uprising, succumbed to his bullet injury on July 20 that he sustained on July 19 when he was observing skirmishes on the street from the balcony of their rented house in the Rayerbag area.    

“We have no words to express our mental condition since our son’s death. It is impossible to forget his memories and make others understand the pain of losing a child,” grieving Hasan said in an emotion choked voice.

Recalling the fatal incident, Hasan said it was Friday on July 19 when the anti-discrimination student movement ascended to its peak. Around 4.30pm, Abdul Ahad woke up from sleep due to noisy sounds on the street under their 11th storey apartment in the Rayerbag area of Jatrabari in the city. Ahad’s family was residing at the 7th floor of that apartment.

“Awaking from the sleep, Abdul Ahad went to the balcony and asked me “Baba, Baba, look. Look there is a clash on the street”. Then, I and my wife, Kuhinur Akter Sumi, went to the balcony and joined him,” Hasan shared.

He said they peered down at the street below when there were clashes between two groups- student protesters and supporters of the then-ruling Awami League. Ahad was standing in between his parents at the balcony at that time.

Hasan recounted that the people of both groups were throwing stones at each other while the supporters of Awami League- Chhatra League, Jubo League and Shramik League- took position in the front side of their building and the student protesters were on the opposite side.

Hasan remembered that they heard the sounds of gunshots and sound grenades during the clash, but could not recall any police presence there at that time.

“Suddenly, my son fell onto the ground following a bullet that hit his right eye,” 35-year-old Hasan, a senior assistant of the income tax department, said in a composed tone while he was trying to control his emotion.

Ahad’s father Abul Hasan sat motionless beside this correspondent on a two-seat sofa at his office in the city’s Bijoynagar area.

“We immediately took my son covered in blood to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) while he was put on life support in the intensive care unit (ICU),” Hasan recalled the heart-wrenching movement.

He said they reached the hospital through allies by rickshaw avoiding the main streets as a terrible situation was prevailing across the city streets.

Hasan said performing a CT scan was urgent to determine the exact position of the bullet as it was lodged in Ahad’s head. As Ahad would have to be disconnected from the ICU equipment to undergo a CT scan, which would put his life at risk, the doctors didn’t perform the CT scan, he added.

“Later, from an x-ray report, we came to know that the bullet was lodged in his brain,” Hasan said.

Controlling his emotion, he recalled that between 8.30pm and 9pm on the next day (on July 20), a doctor emerged from the ICU and unfolded the devastating news that Abdul Ahad had died.

“Later, we received my son’s body from the hospital around 3pm on the next day (July 21) following the postmortem,” Hasan said, his voice choked with grief.

Ahad was laid to his eternal rest at their family graveyard at his ancestral village of Pukuria of Manikdaha union at Bhanga upazila in Faridpur on the same day.

Though Hasan could not recognize who fired the bullet, he recalled that the bullet came from the front side of their apartment where the men of Chhatra League, Jubo League and Shramik League took position during the clash.

According to locals of Merajnagar in Rayerbag, the same group killed Md Masud (42), a small construction material trader, in front of his two sons on the road adjacent to Shahi Masjid when he went to offer Asr prayers around 5pm on the same day (July 19).

In a video captured by mobile phone from the rooftop of a building on that day, which was aired on RTV, it was seen that two youths wearing helmets were shooting indiscriminately from in front of a shop while some others were giving them instruction. One bullet hit Masud's head and was lodged inside.

The eyewitnesses of Masud’s incident, however, claimed that before killing Masud, the same group of people killed Abdul Ahad.

About his dream centering his youngest son, Hasan said his elder son Meheraj Hasan Dihan is studying at a Hafezi Madrasah at Kachukhet in the city. Therefore, he also had a dream of making Ahad a Hafez-e Quran.

Showing a video where Ahad was seen reciting the Surah Ikhlas of the Holy Quran, Hasan said, “We groomed him up in such a way that my son in such little age had memorized many Surahs of the Holy Quran”.

He used to recite the ‘Ayatul Kursi’ and listen to Surah Fatiha of the Holy Quran on the mobile phone every night when he went to bed, Hasan recalled.

“Now whenever I listen to the Surah Fatiha at night, I feel my son is listening too, lying beside me,” he said, his voice trembling.

Noting that Ahad’s mother, Sumi, is still traumatized, Hasan said, “My wife still cannot sleep at night. She cries every night holding Ahad’s photo and his belongings including toys”.
Sumi, a 26-year-old housewife, has opened a facebook page after the names of their two sons named “Dihan & Abdul Ahad Two Brothers”. According to Hasan, his wife now passes most of the time of a day by uploading photos and videos of Abdul Ahad on the page.

Speaking about the trial, Hasan said it is very easy for the government to identify the perpetrators, who killed Abdul Ahad.

“If the government wants, they could unveil the truth,” he said and demanded capital punishment for those responsible for killing his son.