Manju Mia. Photo : BSS

By Md Mamun Islam
 
RANGPUR, Mar 10, 2025 (BSS) – Manju Mia heroically embraced martyrdom in police firing while participating in an anti-discrimination student movement march on Joybangla Road in Barabari area of the capital city Dhaka on July 20.

Remembering her beloved husband, a mason Manju Mia, 40, disoriented Rahima Begum, 30, often pulls her two unconscious children to her chest and just cries in unbearable pain, looking up at the sky.
 
And just like that, the small dreams that the Manju-Rahima couple had centered on their children were suddenly shattered completely.
 
After losing her most precious asset, her beloved husband, Rahima is now floating in an ocean of uncertainty and darkness with her two ailing children without treatment.
 
Her five-year-old daughter, Mohana Akhter Mariyam, is suffering from two large tonsillitis in her throat, and her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Abu Bakar, is suffering from asthma.
 
Talking to BSS, Rahima said that she got married to Manju, son of day-laborer Enchar Ali, 62, of Juanerchar village in Chhawla union of Pirgachha upazila of Rangpur in 2017.
 
Earlier, Manju was married to another woman from Akkelpur upazila of Joypurhat district and they have two sons Alam, 17, a ninth grader and Russel, 12, a fifth grader.
 
But later they got divorced and Manju married Rahima Begum.
 
Manju is the eldest son among three sons and a daughter of his parents.
 
His poor farm-laborer brothers Shahidul Islam, 30, and Sohel Rana, 18, are married and live separately and sister Rina Khatun, 24, was married to Dhalu Mia, 32, of the same area.
 
Manju's mother Shahiton Khatun, 58, is a housewife and the family has no cultivable land other than 20 decimals of the homestead land with a small house there.
 
Meanwhile, Rahima is the sixth among four sons and four daughters of her parents.
 
Rahima’s landless ailing father Abdur Rahman, 85, is passing his last days in bed with her mother Lailey Begum, 60, in a single room erected on the flood control embankment in village Tambulpur under Pirgachha upazila of Rangpur.
 
Abdur Rahman has lost his land, house, and all his property due to river bank  erosion several times over the past decades.
 
Rahima's younger brother Rubel, 15, works as a helper for a team of masons, and her younger sister Zaheda Begum, 19, returned to her parents after separating from her husband.
 
"After my husband's martyrdom, I could not stay at my in-laws' house with honour and dignity because of unbearable problems there. I had to return to my parents with my two children," said Rahima.
 
Rahima now lives in a single room with seven people, including her father, mother, a brother, a divorced sister, and her two children and a cow in the other corner of the same room, in a miserable environment.
 
The entire family of seven members survives on the meager income of Rahima's younger brother Rubel, who doesn't get a job every day. Sometimes they also have to go without food.
 
Rahima said, “My husband was the most precious asset to my wife. I no longer have that asset. The police shot and killed my husband and have taken away our dream of survival.”
 
Failing to bear the miseries of poverty in his village with his wife and children, landless Manju took his wife Rahima to Dhaka two and a half-year ago to sort out their difficult family.
 
The couple had to leave their only daughter and only son in the house of Rahima’s parents.
 
In Dhaka city, Manju worked as a mason, and his wife worked in a local garment factory. They worked hard and lived in a rented house in Barabari area on the Joybangla Road in Dhaka city.
 
“I went to Dhaka with so much hope for the future of our children. Now I have nothing left. Who will look after our innocent children and who will I ask for justice from? I ask for justice from Almighty Allah,” Rahima said with tearful eyes.
 
As in the past few days, Manju left his home at 1 pm on July 20 to participate in the anti-discrimination student movement.  
 
Shortly after, Manju was seriously injured when a lethal bullet fired by the police at around 1 pm in the Barabari Joybangla Road area of Dhaka entered the front left side of his abdomen and exited the back right side.
 
Manju's body was riddled with police bullet wounds and he quickly collapsed to the ground due to excessive bleeding.
 
“Manju somehow could tell my mobile phone number to participating students in the march when someone informed me that Manju was critically injured in police firing,” Rahima said.
 
Rahima rushed there and with the help of locals, she took Manju to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital (STAMCH) where the attending doctors suggested taking him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
 
“Hiring an ambulance, I started for DMCH with Manju at 1:45 pm from STAMCH, but the police obstructed our way many times. We could move only up to the Uttara area by 4:30 pm when Manju breathed his last,” she said.
 
“Manju could survive if the police didn’t obstruct our way to DMCH and we could reach there timely,” an emotion-choked Rahima said with tears in eyes.
 
Rahima took her husband's body to his birthplace, Juanerchar village, by hiring a mortuary ambulance for Taka 37,000, and the burial cost was Taka 5,000 and other expenses were Taka 18,000.
 
“We arrived in the village Juanerchar with Manju’s body under Pirgachha upazila of Rangpur at 2:30 am on July 21 and the body was buried at 10 am,” she said, adding that she had to borrow Taka 60,000 from others to meet these expenses.
 
Manju’s father Enchar Ali said, “No father can be happy after seeing his child's dead body. My son was martyred heroically in police firing. I want justice and help for the children of Manju,” Enchar said.
 
Rahima's extremely poor father, Abdur Rahman said, “My helpless daughter Rahima is worried about her two minor children. I never thought that my daughter will lose her husband at such a young age,” he said.
 
Although Manju and Rahima did not have land and house, there was no unrest in their family. There was no lack of happiness.
 
“Now I have no husband, no place to stay, no house. I can't understand where to go or what to do. I am currently at my father's house. We are poor. No one cares about poor people. I spend my days with two children in extreme hardship,” Rahima said.
 
So far, Rahima has received Taka 1,30,000 from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. She has paid off a loan of Taka 60,000 and bought a cow to rearing with this money.
 
The July Srity Foundation has given Rahima Taka four-lakh and her father-in-law Taka one-lakh.
 
"Out of the Taka four lakh, I gave Taka 1.50 lakh to my husband's two sons, Alam and Russell, from his first wife. With the remaining Taka 2.50 lakh, I leased 60 decimals of cultivable land and am cultivating crops there," said Rahima.
 
Apart from this, Rahima received Taka 10,000 from the Pirgachha Upazila Nirbahi Officer and Taka 4,000 from Shamsur Rahman Sumon, a student coordinator of Begum Rokeya University.
 
“My children need immediate, improved medical care. I urge the interim government to immediately provide my children with a home to live in and the necessary support to survive,” Rahima said.