Sirajul Islam Nijhum, a third-year student of Chittagong University (CU), has claimed that his friend Hridoy Chandra Tarua, killed during the recent quota reform protests, might have been killed by bullets fired by miscreants infiltrating the demonstrations, not by police fire.
Nijhum made this claim in a Facebook video where he describes himself as a witness to the incident and explains how he arrived at this conclusion by analyzing the sequence of events.
On July 18, during the protest in Chittagong, Hridoy, a student of Chittagong University, was shot and killed.
Nijhum, who was with him, says in the video that Hridoy was not shot by the police; someone from the crowd fired at him.
He took Hridoy to Parkview Hospital on a rickshaw after he was shot in the Bahaddarhat area.
Nijhum explained that he and Hridoy, along with a few friends, went to Bahaddarhat around 1:30pm on July 18 to join the quota reform protest.
On that day, as students chanted slogans, the police fired tear gas shells, leading to a clash between law enforcement and the protesting students. The police then retreated.
Nijhum mentioned that Hridoy, not being a local, was unfamiliar with the area and said that at the Bahaddarhat intersection, where police and Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were stationed, someone from one side of the road was throwing stones.
Nijhum's group, who were among the students, observed that the police were firing intermittently. He said he and Hridoy, among others, were trying to move away from the crowd.
He suspected some people's presence to be suspicious and potentially inciting attacks on the police and claimed that Hridoy was not shot by police because the police were using rubber bullets, not metal ones.
He argued that they were about 150 to 200 metres away from the police when a very loud gunshot sound was heard.
Nijhum's analysis suggests that there were around 150 people between Hridoy and the police, making it highly improbable that the police’s bullets could have hit Hridoy directly.
Describing the final moments, Nijhum said Hridoy kept saying his legs were numb, he could not move them and repeatedly asked how long it would be until they reached the hospital.
He also noted that the sound of the gunfire they heard was too loud to be from the police at that distance.
Hridoy died while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in the early hours of July 23, according to media reports.
In the video, Nijhum expressed his wish for the country’s situation to improve and mentioned that he missed his family as he was far from home and unable to return due to the danger on the streets.
He urged for the identification of those manipulating and misusing ordinary students and called for a thorough investigation into all student deaths.
Nijhum advised his peers to remain vigilant to avoid being exploited.
