"Victory or Martyrdom" - Rakib Hossain Rajib posted these three words on Facebook shortly before his death after he joined the student protests.
About three hundred students participated in the procession. Soaked in rain, they left for the central Shaheed Minar from the Arambagh area on that fateful Monday morning.
The death of the talented Rakib cast a shadow of mourning over Manikkathi village. The march was led by Nahid Islam, the coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement. When the clock struck 11 o'clock, the procession reached the front of Dhaka Medical College.
The policemen standing there suddenly started firing at the procession without any provocation. A few students, including Rakib Hossain Rajib, who were at the forefront of the procession, were shot and fell to the ground.
Two of Rakib's classmates, who were by the side of the procession, immediately took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Rakib Hossain Rajib, a 10th batch student of Textile Engineering at Southeast University, breathed his last after being put on an oxygen mask in the emergency section of the hospital.
A few hours before the final victory of the movement, Hasanul Banna, a classmate of Rakib and an eyewitness to the incident, described the event thus:
Rakib was the son of farmer Alamgir Hossain from Manikkathi village in the Babuganj upazila of Barisal district. Local journalist Arif Ahmed Munna reported that Rakib's village home was filled with the cries of his relatives. He was buried in the family graveyard after the Janaza at Manikkathi Bazar on Tuesday noon.
Rakib graduated from Khanpura Alim Madrasa in Babuganj and received a diploma in Textile Engineering from Infra Polytechnic Institute in Barisal before enrolling in Southeast University for a BSC.
Hasanul Banna, Rakib's classmate and friend at the same university, said: "We three friends, along with Rakib, were involved in the anti-quota movement from the very beginning. We were led by Nahid Islam Bhai, the coordinator of the anti-discrimination student movement. We followed the command of brother Rakib. Rakib was as brilliant as he was brave. He always liked to be in the front row of the procession. He did not engage in politics, but he often said that he would either be free from this misrule or become a martyr."
Rakib's elder brother Abul Kalam lamented: "My brother was shot dead by the police. Both bullets pierced his stomach. He was as smart as he was hardworking. He was working part-time at DHL Courier while studying at Southeast University. From a mess in Dhaka's Arambagh, he almost financed his own education. His dream was to serve the nation as an engineer."
Local UP member Abdus Salam said: "Rakib was well-known in the area as a protesting youth. He did not hide his face when he saw injustice and always protested when he saw something unfair."
Rakib's family consists of seven members, including two brothers and three sisters. His farmer father's financial condition is not good, and all their dreams revolved around Rakib. Therefore, locals called for Rakib to be rehabilitated with the status of a hero martyr and for his family to receive compensation.