At the heart of youthfulness, Mir Mahfuzur Rahman Mugdho always wanted to serve people through acts of compassion. As a member of Bangladesh Scouts, he was always engaged in humanitarian activities.
As the quota reform movement turned into a nationwide protest, the same spirit forced him to get out of the comfort of his home, and provide foods – biscuits and water – to protesters on Thursday morning.
Without any political affiliation or involvement with the protest, he went out to the Azampur intersection in Uttara with this noble idea, but little did he knew it would be his last day.
When he was resting on the side of the road after finishing the distribution, a bullet hit his forehead and he was brought dead at the Crescent Hospital in Uttara.
Mugdho was doing his MBA at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) after graduating from Khulna University.
Mugdho had two brothers. One was his twin brother Snigdho and another Dipto. Mugdho was a minute younger than Snigdho.
Dreams dashed
“He (Mugdho) had this dream of travelling across Bangladesh, but it is now cut short halfway. He always dreamt of taking a picture in front of the circuit houses of all 64 districts, but little did he know that Thursday would be his last day,” said his twin brother Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho.
Mugdho was only able to visit 34 districts.
He said: “We loved travelling. We planned to visit Tanguar haor next. Two weeks ago, Mugdho booked boat and train ticket of 11 of our friends. I already visited Tanguar haor, when Mugdho was in Khulna university. Since then, he wanted to go there. Even I told him few days ago, if you don’t visit Tanguar haor, your life will be in vain.
How Mugdho died
On Thursday afternoon, Mugdho told his twin brother Snigdho to accompany him to the food distribution, but later changed his mind saying: “You do fear a lot, rather stay at the house.” And then he went out.
Snigdho told Dhaka Tribune: “The only day I told him I can’t go because I am sick, he was shot dead. We two always did everything together. Mugdho was a part of my soul.”
At 4pm on Thursday, he started distributing water and biscuits to quota reform movement activists in the Azampur area.
At 5pm, he was resting with his friends on the road divider. Suddenly a bullet pierced his head.
Mugdho’s friend Ashiq said Mugdho fell on the ground without anyone realizing anything. “As police charged towards us, I managed to carry him away and took him to Crescent Hospital immediately. The doctors said he was already dead.”
On Thursday morning, Mughdo’s parents and his elder brother Dipto went to Cox’s bazar in a pre-scheduled visit.
Mugdho’s father did not know anything about his son going to protest.
After learning about the incident from Ashiq, Snigdho immediately called Dipto at 6pm.
At that time, Dipto was at Marine drive with his wife and parents.
Dipto said: “I couldn’t believe my ear. I couldn’t speak for a few minutes. The first thing that came to my mind is that our mom has a heart condition. So I told my parents we need to go back to Dhaka right now, because Mugdho is a little bit injured.”
They didn’t even know my brother was no more until they saw his dead body in the freezer Van at Dhaka, he said.
Around 10pm on Thursday, Snigdho received his twin brother’s death certificate.
Whole night he held his body in the garage.
Snigdho said: “I went to Uttara and Badda police stations may times, no one confirmed which police station will process the formalities. Until that hospital could not release the body.”
On Friday morning, his parents came to the garage and learned about Mugdho’s fate.
His mother fainted at least seven times. She could not accept his young son can die like this.
Football and social work
He was only a sixth grader, when he first joined scouting, and ended up winning Bangladesh Scouts National Service Award.
Alongside his interest for social Mugdho also liked to do social work and play football in his free time.
Mugdho’s father, a health inspector in Brahmanbaria municipality, said: “I was a government employee, but I never prevented my sons from doing social work. I always encouraged them to help others.”
One of his friends at Uttara football club told Dhaka Tribune: “Mugdho used to regularly play football here. He was one of the best players in our team. He played in 4th division team Black Leopard Football Club.”
Mir Mahmudur Rahman Dipto, who is four years older than Mugdho, told Dhaka Tribune: “We were more like friends than brothers. We used to bond over football. We both loved bike ride and travelled many districts together.”
He said Mugdho went to the movement to distribute aid to protesters, because he loved to do social work what he won from Scouts.
Mugdho used to earn $2,000-3,000 every month through freelancing. The twin brothers helped each other works.
Snigdho said: “Just a day before his death, I was outside but one foreign client pressured me to join a Zoom meeting. Mugdho filled in for me and secured a $70 assignment. The client did not even know that it was not me.”