By Syed Altefat Hossain

DHAKA, March 6, 2025 (BSS) – A promising student, Md Irfan Bhuiyan, was fatally shot near Kajla Toll Plaza in the city’s Jatrabari area during the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM) on July 18 ,2024, leaving his grieving family shattered.

Irfan, a 23-year-old honors second year student of United International University (UIU), embraced martyrdom at the time when the government launched a massive crackdown on the protestors under the banner of ADSM that eventually turned into a massive uprising by that time.

The movement, however, succeeded in ousting the nearly 16 years of autocracy on August 5 in 2024.

Irfan’s father, Md Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, a senior executive (technical) at the same university (UIU), is now struggling with unbearable guilt, believing he unknowingly allowed his son to walk into danger.

“I feel responsible for my son’s death. I gave him money for transport, never imagining it would be his last journey,” he said, his voice filled with regret.

Aminul vividly remembered the memory of his son on the final day that on the morning of July 18, Irfan was at home at Nimai Kasari in Siddirganj of Narayanganj. Despite suffering from dysentery since morning, he received calls from his friends urging him to join the protest in Badda and Shanir Akhra.

“From the morning, Ifran was suffering from dysentery. But some of his friends were calling him to join the movement at Badda while some others, especially Moinul Haque, were calling to join at Jatrabari,” Irfan’s grief stricken father recalled.

His mother managed to keep him home until noon, but he eventually left home during the prayer time of Zohr without even having breakfast and joined the street protest in the Shanir Akhra area of Jatrabari.

“When Irfan showed his adamantness over joining the movement, I told her mother to give him Taka 100 for transport.

I never thought that would be the last time I’d see him alive,” Aminul said in a sobbing tone.

“Now I feel I pushed my son towards death by giving that money,” he lamented.

Aminul said he was unaware about the prevailing terrible situation on the street when members of law enforcement agencies were allegedly firing indiscriminately at the protesters.

He recalled that Irfan’s friend Pial, also a UIU student, broke the tragic news to him when he came out of the mosque after offering Asr prayers.

“Uncle, you have to go to Jatrabari. Irfan has been shot and is in the hospital," Pial informed him. A bullet struck Irfan’s back, piercing the left side and lodging inside his body.

Desperate father, by the time reached Jatrabari, came to learn that multiple hospitals, including Salman Hospital at Shanir Akhra and Ibn Sina at Jatrabari, had refused to admit him while he was taken to the National Medical Institute in Sadarghat.

But when Aminul reached the medical, it was too late. His son was gone. “I found my son’s lifeless body there. Later, I received the body with a death certificate from the hospital,” Irfan’s bereaved family said.

Aminul said, later, they took Irfan’s body to their ancestral home in Narsingdi Sadar Upazila and laid him to his eternal rest at their social graveyard on the morning of July 19.

Unbeknownst to his family, Irfan had been secretly involved in the movement for days.

Though he outwardly opposed the protests, it was later discovered that he had joined earlier demonstrations, deceiving his family members to keep them from worrying.

“Irfan used to express his opinion against the quota reform movement. But we could not understand that it was his tricks to keep us in dark about his involvement in the movement,” Aminul said with an emotion choked voice.

Irfan was not just a student; he was a dreamer. Though he had aspired to become a doctor, he settled for studying Computer Science at the UIU, determined to carve a future in IT. He often reassured his struggling father that he would build a home for his family after completing his graduation.

Aminul said he has a small piece of land in the Nimai Kasari Bazar area at Siddirganj of Narayanganj, but he could not afford building a house.

“My son promised to take a home loan and build a house for us. But now, everything is gone,” Irfan’s mourning father said.

Irfan had also planned to support his two younger sisters, Bushra and Sayema Akter, who passed HSC exams this year, in becoming doctors.

About the financial assistance they got from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation, Aminul said they got Taka 5 lakh from the foundation, but they donated it to a local mosque.

“Our son had a dream of having a laptop and motorcycle, but we couldn’t afford these for him. Therefore, we decided not to use this money. Since we couldn’t fulfill his dreams, we will not spend this,” Irfan’s father said in a heavy voice.

Aminul said he filed a case with Jatrabari Police Station, holding top government and administrative officials responsible for the death of Irfan.

However, the family remains broken beyond repair.

“My wife Moslema (43), a housewife, constantly cries, clutching our son’s photos. She blames me for not stopping him,” Aminul said.

The pain of losing Irfan is immeasurable. His dreams remain unfulfilled, his family devastated, and his father left with a question he will never escape: “What if I had stopped him that day?”

Irfan’s grieving father now seeks justice for killing of his son.