Photo: BSS

SAVAR, April 20, 2025 (BSS) – The parents of 17-year-old Mujahid, who was “shot dead by police” during the anti-discrimination student movement- 2024, have been devastated after losing their only breadwinner son in the uprising. The once struggling family is now grappling with severe financial hardship.

According to his family members, Mujahid left their rented house at Sobhanbag in the municipality area around 12noon on August 5 last year to join the ‘March to Dhaka Programme’ to make an end to the nearly 16-year fascist regime.

But “he was brutally shot dead by police” around pm just a moment before autocratic ruler Sheikh Hasina fled the country in face of the massive student-people uprising. The brutal reality was that though the movement succeeded in ousting the autocracy, he never returned home, nor could he witness the victory of the cause he fought for.

Mujahid of Goptergathi village in Muksudpur of Gopalganj district studied up to seventh grade at Sreepur Junior Secondary School staying at his maternal grandparents’ home in Kashiani upazila of the same district. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he moved here and started working at a furniture shop to help his parents, who were struggling to survive at that time.

Mujahid was living with his day laborer father, Sahabuddin Mallik (50), and housewife mother, Sarmin Begum (40), at a rented house at Sobhanbag here until his death. His younger brother, Mofachher Mallik is studying in class six at a local madrasah in their village in Gopalganj.

Mujahid’s father, Shahabuddin, said during the Covid-19 pandemic, his son had emerged as the backbone of his family when he lost his job. Since then, he was bearing all the household expenses, including the costs of his father's needs, his mother’s medicine, and his younger brother’s schooling.

A bullet left the entire family distraught. Despite receiving some meager financial support, they are currently struggling to make ends meet.

Shahabuddin said, “I cannot work much. Moreover, there is less work for day laborers now. So, if I have work one day, I cannot get work the next day. In such a situation, my son had shouldered the family responsibility”.

He said, from the beginning of the student movement demanding quota reform in government jobs, Mujahid used to go to the street protests with his friends.
He would join the movement ignoring his parents’ prohibition.

Mujahid’s father said on the morning of August 5, he went to his workplace like every day. That day, he found his workplace shuttered and returned home.
Shahabuddin said, around 12noon, Mujahid bought popcorn and shared it with local children before joining the protest.

Around 1pm, he said, one of Mujahid’s friends informed him that Mujahid had been shot near the new overpass in front of Savar New Market.

“Rushing to the scene, I found my son bleeding from a gunshot wound that entered from the back of his neck and exited through the front. Locals were taking him to Enam Medical College and Hospital,” Mujahid’s grief stricken father recalled the tragic incident.
He said: “I too went to the hospital with my son. But fate didn’t favour us. Soon after reaching the hospital, duty doctors declared my son dead. Then I felt the sky had collapsed on my head”.

Later, they took Mujahid’s body to their village home in Muksudpur upazila of Gopalganj district and laid him to his eternal rest at their village graveyard there.
Noting that his son was the only breadwinner of their family, Sahabuddin said, “I can’t work much anymore. Besides, there is a shortage of work for day laborers. I don’t know how we’ll survive now.”

The family has so far received Taka 1 lakh from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Taka 50,000 from Al-Muslim Group. But it’s not enough. They urgently appeal for further assistance and rehabilitation.

Mujahid’s maternal grandmother, Shahida Begum, over phone said, “Mujahid lived with us, and we raised him with love. We helped him study by staying with us.”
She said Mujahid was a good boy and well mannered. “We still can’t accept his death,” Shahida said in a sobbing tone.

His maternal grandfather, Jahangir Mollah, demanded exemplary punishment for those who killed his grandson and urged the government to ensure a secure future for Mujahid’s family.
Mujahid’s grieving mother, Sarmin Begum, tearfully said Mujahid was incredibly responsible.
“Observing his father jobless, he quit school and began working. We were all surviving on his income. But at the death of our son, we have fallen apart. I have been sick. I need medicine every week, which costs Taka 1,000. We’re truly helpless now,” she lamented.
Seeking justice, Mujahid’s mourning mother said they filed a murder case over Mujahid killing.

“I want to see the killer punished before I die. Only then will we find peace,” Sarmin said.