Twenty-year-old Maruf Hossain studied in class 12 of Ekota Degree College, Barisal. He had a dream: he would work in the catering business like his father when he grew up.
He always told his parents that he would work in a big office after completing his studies.
Although he studied in a rural college, he used to help his father with the business in Dhaka in order to send his two younger brothers to school in Dhaka. Thinking that the cost of his studying at a college in Dhaka would be high, he enrolled in a college in his village.
He used to go to college once a month and sat exams.
His father, Idris Ali, said: “My son was not uneducated like us. He took over my business after class VIII. He was very good at accounting and understood business. Because of my son's intelligence, our income kept increasing. We provided food, coffee and fuchka quickly at various events.
“I bought a machine on the advice of my son for coffee and fuchka processing. Then the supply increased. Our family slowly started becoming prosperous. But a gunshot took my son's life. On the afternoon of July 18, I sent him to collect some pending payments from an office at Mohakhali. I lost him trying to save TK500.”
Idris said there had been disorder for a few days and there were clashes outside at the time. “We eat from day to day. If there is no work for a week, the family begins to lack food. There were no food items at home. So I told my son that there is a bill in Mahakhali that needed to be collected.”
He said the people supposed to clear the bill were complaining that they would have to pay Tk500 for travel to deliver the amount themselves. As a result, Idris asked his son to go and collect the amount.
Around 4.30pm, when Maruf was preparing to go to Mohakhali, he told his father that it was not safe outside and that he was afraid of going. He had seen that there were injured people on the main road in Badda.
Due to the risk, Maruf took along his uncle for company. At one point, when they were waiting to cross a road, a clash broke out between police and some of the activists there. Police were firing teargas shells.
“Maruf was standing next to me. He suddenly screamed that he had been hit in the chest by a bullet and asked me to save him,” Maruf’s uncle said.
With the help of locals, Maruf’s uncle took him to the AMZ Hospital in Badda. He had been shot in the right side of the chest and was bleeding.
The hospital authorities sent him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment, but Maruf died in his uncle’s arms on the way there.
Idris said: “My son never went to any procession. I want justice for his death. When my son was not in politics, why did the hospital say that he died from a police bullet?”
Shattered dreams
Maruf’s family is constantly reminded of their loss as his possessions remain inside their home.
Clutching his son's college admission paper to his chest with tears in his eyes, Idris Ali said: "My son could not get admission to university after passing the higher secondary examination. He will never again be able to go out with his favorite bike.”
Maruf’s mother said: “We are poor. Our clothes show our condition, but my Maruf was always neat and smart. He wished for a motorcycle, and one year his father bought this bike for him. His dream was to ride this bike with his father.”
She added that just two days before his death, Maruf got his driving license, but was not able to drive his bike even for a few hours.
“It was the only thing he wanted from us. We fulfilled his wish, but now only the bike is here. My son's dream was to wear office clothes and go to the office and take pictures with me. But he will never take a picture with me wearing office clothes,” she said.