Matiur Rahman. -Photo: Collected

By Borun Kumar Dash
 
DHAKA, Mar 8, 2025 (BSS) – Matiur Rahman, a 51-year-old rickshaw puller, was shot dead on August 5, 2024 when he joined the victory procession in the city’s Mirpur area following the fall of nearly 16-year autocracy in face of the massive student-people uprising.
 
His death in the uprising exposed his family to a total wilderness both emotionally and financially as his wife is now staring at a bleak future with her three children including two daughters and a son by losing the only breadwinner of the family.
 
“My father went to witness the joy of the people on the street after watching the news on the television that autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina had fled the country. But he didn’t return home as he was shot dead in front of Mirpur Police Station,” Matiur’s grief stricken elder daughter Nurun Nahar said.
 
Nahar, who is now doing internship at Shyamoli Ibn Sina Hospital after completing graduation in nursing, burst into tears as this correspondent approached her for some comments about her martyred father at their rented house at Mirpur Shialbari Staff Quarter in the city recently.
 
Before starting pulling rickshaws, Matiur was working as an office assistant at the head office of the Bureau of Statistics in the city’s Agargaon area.
 
“My father's job was not permanent. In 2019, he filed a case in the High Court for making his job permanent. But in 2022, he was sent to forced retirement without giving any penny,” Nahar said in an emotion choked voice.
 
Since then, Matiur was meeting his family expenses including the education cost of his three children by pulling a rickshaw.
 
“Household and education expenses of our three siblings were entirely dependent on my father's income. Since my father’s death, we are staring at an uncertain future,” Nahar lamented.
 
Recalling her father’s memory on the final day, she recalled that on August 5, her father pulled a rickshaw until noon and returned home after buying five kilograms of rice.

 
“After lunch, my father was watching television. Watching the news of the fall of the government, my father had told us ‘the country will be run in a better way from now,” Nahar added.
 
Matiur, however, was very optimistic about getting his job back since the country has been freed from the fascist regime when he lost his job.
 
“Maybe I can get my job back. Let's go and see the joy of the people on the streets,” Nahar quoted her father as he told them before stepping out of the house.
 
Matiur’s second daughter is studying in class ten while his youngest son is a ninth grader at a school in the city’s Mirpur area.
 
His wife Rojina Begum, an informal Arabic teacher, is now struggling to manage livelihood for their now four member family.
 
Seeking a government job for her elder daughter, she said, “My elder daughter has completed graduation in nursing. If the government provides her a job, we could survive somehow.”
 
Rojina, however, said they got Taka 5 lakh from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation and Taka 2 lakh from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami with which they met their urgent expenses since Matiur’s demise.
 
Urging the government to give a state recognition to the martyrs of the 2024 July Uprising, she said, “We must ensure that no evil force can take away the ‘Sonar Bangla’ which we got at cost many lives”.
 
“All those who were killed during the anti-discrimination student movement should be given the status of martyrs. It is not enough to just call them martyrs verbally; it should be recognized by the state,” Rojina added.
 
Matiur Rahman was son of Ayub Ali of Kamalakantapur village of Shibganj Upazila in Chapainawabganj. He was the youngest among his four brothers and two sisters.
 
Speaking about the difficulties over burial of Matitur, his daughter Nahar said, “When we reached Rajshahi in the early hours of August 6 with my father’s body, My uncles over phone informed us that my father would not be allowed to be laid our village graveyard as my father did not donate money for the graveyard”.
 
Later, Matiur was laid to his eternal rest at the Purbapara Graveyard of Haripur Mahalla at Chapainawabganj Sadar Upazila, which is the village of his father-in-law.
 
Nahar, however, said they even faced a more dire reality when they went to their village home.
 
“When we went to our village home, our uncles informed us that my father had no home or land in the village. They claimed my father sold out all of his wealth to them. But when we wanted to see sale deeds, they refused to show those,” she said, her voice weighed down with grief.
 
Since the family is staring at an uncertain future, Nahar said, “We don't know how long we can stay in this government housing. We have no alternative shelter”.
 
Talking to BSS, Matiur’s elder brother Erfan Ali said his brother didn’t go to the village and pay money to the graveyard management committee.
 
“If we wanted to bury my brother at our village graveyard, we had to pay about Taka 10,000 to Taka 12,000. But we could not manage this money,” he added.
 
Noting that Matiur had one house and some land in his village home, Erfan claimed his brother sold those to his two brothers.