Ruma Akter, the wife of murdered police Constable Amirul Islam, on Tuesday said with a heavy heart that her seven-year-old daughter, Tanha, is still waiting for the day when her father will return home. She finds it hard to believe that her father was killed on October 28 while performing duties around the program venue of the BNP.
Ruma was speaking at a program organized by social groups “Mayer Kanna” and “Agni-santrash er atronad” at Shilpakal Academy in the capital on the occasion of International Human Rights Day. Tanha was also present.
On the other hand, BNP held a human chain program in front of the National Press Club to mark the day.
At the event by “Mayer Kanna”, relatives of Bangladesh Army and Air Force officers who were hanged after summary trials at Kangaroo courts after 1975, as well as several family members of those killed in recent violent incidents and several injured persons, highlighted their suffering.
Ruma said at the event: “What was my husband’s fault? Why was he killed? He did not engage in any politics. Why was he killed at a political program? I demand from the Prime Minister that, the way Amirul was killed, the killers should be punished more severely.”
Recently, during the BNP blockade, a bus of Achim Paribahan was set on fire in Dhaka, and the helper Abu Naeem, who was sleeping in the bus, was burnt to death.
In her speech, Abu Naeem's mother said: “Jamaat-e-Islami and BNP are burning people. My son was burned to death. I want the prime minister to take this seriously, so that they understand the suffering of a mother who has lost a child. I want them to be punished.”
A businessman named Sayem, from Manohardi Upazila in Narsingdi, said in 2013, BNP-Jamaat supporters blocked the road by felling trees. At that time, a mother fell ill and wanted to go to the hospital, but she was not allowed to go.
“I requested them to take her to the hospital. That's why they set fire to my business. Then I became a destitute,” he said.
Advocate Khodeja Nasreen of the Dhaka Judge’s Court narrated her sufferings at the event, saying: “In 2013, a petrol bomb hit a bus of Bihanga Paribahan in Shahbagh. Somehow, I got out of that bus, but I have been crippled for life as my two hands were burnt that day.”
She demanded that those who were committing arson be brought to justice quickly.
Earlier, at the beginning of the program, several documents were displayed about the killing of the freedom fighters in the army during the tenure of former president and BNP founder General Ziaur Rahman.
Arson attack incidents of BNP and Jammat in 2013, 2014, and 2015 were also shown in the program.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader, Joint General Secretary and Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, among others, were present at the event, but they did not deliver speeches.
Awami League Central Working Committee Member Advocate Tarana Halim, Member of Parliament Nahid Izhar Khan, and Dr Nuzhat Chowdhury jointly conducted the event.
