July Uprising: A bullet ends life of teenager

BSS :

Md Nayem, a 17-year-old 12th grader of Shanarpar Rowshan Ara Degree College, had a dream of becoming judge but a bullet snatched away his life during the anti-discrimination student movement.

He was fatally shot dead on July 19 last year when he joined the anti-discrimination student movement in the Kutubkhali area of Jatrabari in the city.

Nayem embraced martyrdom at a time when members of law enforcement agencies launched a massive crackdown on the student movement that eventually had turned into a student-people uprising by that time.

A bullet that penetrated the left side of his chest, just above his heart, exposed his family to a state of total wilderness both emotionally and financially as his father Md Kamrul Islam, a garment employee, could not join his job since his death due to mental trauma.

“Apart from his excellence in badminton, cricket, and football, my son dreamed of becoming a judge, inspired by the lawyers among our relatives,” Nayem’s grief stricken father Md Kamrul Islam (58) shared.

He recalled that Nayem often reassured him, saying, “Abbu, you will have no pain when I grow older.
I will make you happy.”
Kamrul could not hold his tears while sharing the harrowing account of the fatal incident at his rented house in the Kutubkhali area of the Jatrabari recently.

Nayem was youngest among two sons of Kamrul and Mahmuda Perveen (45), a housewife, while their elder son, Md Noman, is a honors second year student at Kabi Nazrul Government College in the city.

“On the morning of July 19, I was bedridden with fever and severe headaches. However, before the Azan (call) for Zumah prayers, I had showered to join the Friday prayers at the mosque. But lastly I could not go to the mosque as my physical condition deteriorated,” Nayem’s grieving father recalled.

Kamrul, however, said Nayem joined the Friday prayers on that day and after returning home from the mosque, Nayem had lunch and left the house without informing them. Soon after, Nayem’s mother asked Kamrul about their son Nayem. But Kamrul replied he knew nothing about Nayem.

Finally, around 4pm, seeing the late of Nayem’s return his mother asked his father Kamrul to search for their son as “at that time members of law enforcement agencies were firing at the protesters indiscriminately in the Jatrabari areas”.

“But I replied that I was too unwell to go out,” Kamrul recalled, saying that however, Nayem’s mother’s persistence finally compelled him to step outside with the help of their house owner.

Kamrul, however, recounted that when he went in front of Kutubkhali High School alongside the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway, he observed the streets were eerily silent, a stark contrast to reports of unrest earlier that day.

He could not know that it had become a scene of bloodshed just hours earlier while five people, including his son, had been shot there.

“When a person informed us about the incident of indiscriminate firing on the spot, it did not carry any significant message to me as I believed my son did not join the protest.

But the reality was he used to join the movement secretly, which we didn’t know,” Kamrul said in a sobbing tone.

Being failed to find Nayem, he returned home and was taking rest. But Nayem’s mother was desperate about locating her son’s whereabouts.

Therefore, she again asked Kamrul to search for their son.
“But I again refused, saying my physical condition was not good,” Kamrul recounted, saying finally he again stepped out leaning on the shoulders of his wife and elder, Md Noman, to search for Nayem.

“After searching for hours in the surrounding areas, we went to the Jatrabari Police Station, ignoring the risks of getting caught in the indiscriminate firing. On the way to the police station, a RAB member scolded us saying why we allowed him (Nayem) to go to the movement,” Nayem’s grieving father shared.

However, when they went nearer to the gate of the police station, three to four policemen obstructed them to enter the station, saying they did not arrest any person on that day.
Sharing their desperate search at all corners of the Jatrabari and Demra areas till 2.30am defying curfew imposed from 12midnight on that night, Kamrul said, they searched for Nayem at each and every hospital in the areas suspecting that he might have been admitted there with injuries.

After the hectic search, they returned home after 2.30am and passed rest of the night sleepless through offering prayers for Nayem, he recalled and said in the early hours of July 20, he offered Fazar prayers and went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) along with his elder son.

After reaching the hospital, Kamrul said they were searching for Nayem the injured people at every corner of the DMCH and National Burn Institute, including intensive care units of the both facilities.

“We never thought that Nayem might have been killed. Rather we thought he would have been injured or arrested. Therefore, we were searching for him among the injured people,” he added.
He recalled that at that time a hospital staff informed him that about 1000-1500 injured people were admitted in the DMCH on July 19.

Kamrul, however, recounted that after failing to find Nayem among the injured people, they started searching him at morgues.

“I saw 80-90 bodies in an abandoned state on the floors of two morgues at the Dhaka Medical, but could not find Nayem.
The morgues were flooded with blood shedding from the bodies. Thus I was again convinced to believe that my son was alive as he was not among the bodies,” he said.

By that time, he recalled, his wife and brother, and Nayem’s cousin arrived at the hospital while they started searching for Nayem in different hospitals being divided into parts.

“When we were desperately searching, our house owner called me, saying Nayem was found while the message ignited a fragile hope that my son might still then alive. But his next words were ‘Nayem had been killed’,” Kamrul lamented.