The family of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) student Abrar Fahad, who was reportedly beaten to death over his alleged involvement with Islami Chhatra Shibir, said their son was liberal and progressive in mind, and had enmity with no one.
The second-year student of electrical and electronic engineering department of Buet, was badly beaten by some Chhatra League leaders at a room of Sher-e-Bangla Hall of the university, and was later pronounced dead.
Abrar was the older son among two siblings. His father Barkatullah works at a non-government organization, and his mother Rokeya Khatun teaches at a kindergarten school. His younger brother Abrar Fayaz is a second-year student at Dhaka College.
Abrar's family is still dumbfounded as to why Abrar faced such a consequence, even though he was a peaceful and meritorious student, and had done nothing untoward to lead to his killing.
Abrar Fahad’s mother Rokeya Khatun urged the prime minister to take steps to ensure exemplary punishment of the killers of her son on Monday.
Stunned by the brutal murder of her son, she said she simply failed to understand how her shy smart son could have had any enemies at his university.
Abrar's mother Rokeya Khatrun said she had no idea why anyone would kill her son because he had no enemies.
His family members said Abrar and his brother had gone home, located on the PTI Road in Kushtia town, next to the house of Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif, for a holiday 10 days ago. Abrar wanted to stay there until October 20, but he had exams coming up and needed to come back to the university to study.
Rokeya said she had woken her son up on Sunday morning, and Abrar left his home for Dhaka.
“We had our last conversation with him at 5pm after he reached the hall. We did call him several times at night, but the calls went unanswered,” she said.
When they could not reach Abrar, his younger brother Fayaz sent text messages to Abrar's Facebook Messenger, but did not receive any response, even though the app showed him as active.
The grief-stricken mother demanded exemplary punishment for the killers of her son.
Abrar's uncle Mizanur Rahman saidlabelling Abrar as a Shibir activist is propaganda as the whole family is the supporter of the ruling Awami League.
“It is fabricated; Abrar was a liberal and progressive boy,” he said, adding that Abrar, however, used to attend some Tabligh meetings from time to time.
A brilliant student
Abrar showed how meritorious he was when he was child, his family said.
He passed the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams with impressive results from Kusthia Zilla School in 2015, and did very well in his Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams in 2017. He secured the second position in his entrance exam at Dhaka University, and was on the merit list of the medical college admission tests as well. But he chose to study EEE at Buet.
Abrar's friend Abdullah Al Mamun said he had been a meritorious student in school.
“He was never involved with any sort of politics,” he added.
