Md Akhtaruzzaman Nayeem. Photo: Collected

 
PATUAKHALI, March 17, 2025 (BSS) - "Ma, it's better to die at an early age. Whoever dies first will go to Jannat (heaven). If I am shot dead, I will go to Jannat".
 
These were the last words of Md Akhtaruzzaman Nayeem (43) to his mother before he was shot dead while participating in the anti-discrimination student movement in the capital city, Dhaka on July 27 last year.
 
Nayeem's grief stricken mother Naznin Nahar Minu vividly remembered that her son made the remarks when she asked him over phone not to go anywhere during the anti-discrimination student movement as she had learnt that there was random firing in the capital city, Dhaka.
 
Minu, however, recalled that Nayeem was anxious over the participation of his younger brothers in the movement.
 
"Ma, you should stop my younger brothers from going to the movement. I am worried about them," Nayeem's mother burst into tears while quoting her son as he told her.
 
"Though he had warned me about his younger brothers' participation in the movement, he himself joined the street protest," Minu wailed.
 
According to his family members, Nayeem, the eldest son of late Abdur Rab Master and Naznin Nahar of Bauphal Upazila of the district, was shot dead in the capital's Mirpur on July 27 during the anti-discrimination student movement.
 
Nayeem's younger brother Asadul Islam Asad (28) said on that day evening they came to know that his brother was shot dead on the spot while they received the body from Dhaka Medical College Hospital two days later due to delay in performing postmortem.
 
"We laid my elder brother to his eternal rest at our family graveyard on July 29 following his two namaj-e-janazas in Dhaka and village home. I myself conducted one of the namaj-e-janazas of my brother," he said.
 
Asad demanded exemplary punishment for the persons responsible for his brother's death.
 
Seeking government help, he said, "Now we are two brothers. If the government provides one of us with a government job, we could ensure our mother's wellbeing for the rest of her life. Besides, we don't have a house, if the government provides us with a house to stay in, we will be grateful."
 
Speaking about the assistance they got from different organizations, Nayeem's mother said, "After my son embraced martyrdom, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami was the first to stand by us. They gave me Taka 50,000 and my son's wife Taka 150,000". 
 
Besides, they also got Taka 5 lakh from the July Shaheed Smrity Foundation.
 
Nayeem's wife Ruma Begum (30) said they have a seven-year-old son- Nabil.
 
Expressing anxiety over her future life along with her son, she tearfully said, "How will I now survive? I am spending my days worrying about this".
 
Ruma urged the government to provide her with a government job considering her son's future.
 
"If my husband would remain alive even with injuries, I might have found peace by seeing him. But now he is no more! This emptiness is haunting me round the clock," she said in a sobbing tone.
 
The family demands capital punishment for the people responsible for Nayeem's death.
 
"I want justice for killing my son. I want the killers to walk to the gallows," said Nayeem's mother Minu.
 
His wife Ruma said, "I want exemplary punishment for those who killed my husband so that no other mother or wife has to cry like us in the future".