Thirty-five-year-old Md Shamim Mia was all set to fly to Saudi Arabia in a few days’ time with hopes of ensuring a better livelihood for his family.
All his papers were ready and the family had started dreaming about the solvency that many Bangladeshi families have achieved over decades by sending one or more members to the oil-rich Middle East country.
But on Friday, in just a few decisive moments, some rubber bullets from police’s guns turned those lovely dreams into nightmares for Shamim’s family.
A resident of the Kalia village, Shamim did not have any criminal records; neither was he a political activist. He was just a businessmen based in the local Hamidpur market.
He just listened to his conscience and took to the streets in Kalihati of Tangail district, protesting the rape of a woman and the torture on her teenager son from their locality.
The Dhaka Tribune yesterday talked to Shamim’s grief-stricken mother Amina Begum at their gloomy homestead.
“What fault did my son have? Why was he killed?” asked the mother who could not stop wailing.
Shamim’s wife Anjumanara Bithi alleged that her husband died because the doctors at the Tangail hospital did not give him proper treatment.
His sister-in-law Siratunnabi Shumi said: “Why did police open fire on those innocent people? They could have used rubber bullets first. But instead of doing that, they directly fired gunshots.”
Asked whether they had filed any case, Shumi said in anger: “What is the point in filing cases with the same police who killed my brother [in-law]?” She also demanded the prime minister’s intervention in getting them justice.
Shamim is one of the three people who were killed by police’s gunshots on Friday in the same incident.
This reporter yesterday visited the houses of the other two deceased – Faruq, 32, from the Kushtia village, and Shyamol Chandra Das, 15, from Salenka village – and found that these two families have not also come out of the shock at the sudden demise of their loved ones.
Reports of the autopsy tests, conducted on the dead bodies at the Tangail Medical College Hospital, suggest that they died from bullet wounds.
Harun-or-Rashid, former member of the Kalihati union council, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that the local people got particularly furious after rumour spread that police had taken bribe to release the alleged rapist.
One of the protesters told the Dhaka Tribune: “The protest was organised by the people from the Atharo Dana village in Ghatail. They used loudspeakers to gather people on Friday afternoon. We were demonstrating peacefully but police, without any provocation, interfered.”
It all started on Tuesday morning, when a man named Rafiqul Islam Roma, from the Kalia village, allegedly tortured Alamin, 17, and raped his mother.
Roma was angry with Alamin because his wife had ran away with the teenager twice. On that day, he called Alamin and his mother to his house in Kalia saying he would only have a discussion.
But instead, after Alamin and his mother came, Roma allegedly tortured the boy and took his mother to one of the rooms in his house and raped her.
Later, on information, police went there and rescued the victims and detained Roma.
On the same day, Alamin’s mother filed a lawsuit with the Kalihati police station against Roma, his brother-in-law Hafiz and another man named Kazi under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.
Probe committee
Meanwhile, a media release from the police headquarters in Dhaka yesterday said that a three-member committee had been formed to look into the background of the three deaths and why police opened fire.
A senior official posted at the headquarters said that the policemen who opened fire during the incident had been closed from duty.
Mohammad Ali, additional deputy inspector general of police’s Dhaka Range, yesterday visited the area, talked to the local people and requested them to be patient.
Condemnation
Rights body Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) yesterday strongly condemned what they said was “excessive use of force” by police on the protesters.
The organisation yesterday issued a press statement, signed by its Executive Director Sultana Kamal.
“In reaction police claimed that they at first used tear gas and then charged batons and fired blank rounds to bring in the situation under control. But it is clear to us how so many people could get bullet-hit if they fired blank rounds,” the statement reads.
“We believe that expressing dissent is a democratic right. But violence while protesting cannot be supported. On the other hand, the law enforcement agencies will also have to maintain certain standards in maintaining law and order. Their reaction should be balanced, which means that they should keep away from using force as much as possible. They need to be careful about this,” the statement reads.
ASK also called upon police to publish evidence on whether police’s reaction during the incident was balanced on not and demanded punishment if anyone is found guilty.
