The blood of my compatriots drenched the month of July. This trauma kept a chokehold on me. Every time I opened my eyes, all I saw was the blood of my peers begging me for justice. A justice that I could not give, but I can tell their stories.
The bloodshed started in the second week of July while the students of public universities demanded that the quota system be changed. The system was outdated, and students protested for reform. However, our PM defended the system, stating that it was to help the families of the freedom fighters, not for the razakars.
It has rattled the students because the term razakars basically means traitor. It is astonishing how a country leader can call the students traitors. The student protests grew louder against these allegations. When the government couldn’t control it, the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a student wing of the Bangladesh government, came into the picture along with the police force. Bringing the BCL into the matter was the worst decision our government made.
The BCL and police force started to attack the students. Abu Sayed, an innocent man, was the first victim seen by every eye in the country. He died by a rubber bullet and died on the way to the hospital.
So many other people also lost their young lives in these protests. Mir Mugdho Mahfuz, a 17-year-old boy, Farhan Faiyaz Ratul, a 15-year-old boy, Tahmid Tamim, and a 14-year-old boy, Saimon, were all killed. They were all fighting and helping others when the goons attacked them.
It is impossible to name all the victims, as there is no official document clarifying the number of deaths and injured students. Their deaths were the final barrier that broke the division between private and public universities.
As a student at a private university, my peers and I joined the movement. At that moment, all students joined together to fight against the unjust. The division meant nothing to us when we saw students and kids die for a better future.
The protest took an ugly turn once the blood of the students poured on the streets. It was severe when the authorities forced the students out of the halls. This action fuelled the fire inside the students as they demanded justice for those martyred. They demanded a public apology from then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. However, asking for this is like pulling teeth. They also demanded the dismissal of ministers and the reopening of the universities.
Our government did the only thing they knew how to do: Turn off all communications. Their “advisor” instructed our leaders. As a result, we got blocked from the rest of the world. We were prisoners at our own homes. We were allowed a few breaks, but we couldn’t speak up.
The government should be scared of this generation because we refuse to see the system with rose-tinted glasses
The government told us many tales of how the internet stopped working. It was hilarious to hear those lies because we are the generation living in the internet age. Finally, the Supreme Court advised the government to reduce the percentage of the quota of freedom fighters.
Another gift our beloved government bestowed upon us was showering us with bullets from the sky. I never thought going to the balcony was a risky game, but here we were, dying. The worst part of this was the deaths of the children. A six-year-old girl who just wanted to play on her rooftop lost her life because the government was cruel.
I want to know the reason for killing toddlers. What was their crime? I cannot fathom how the families of the deceased are feeling, because I myself am furious about the injustice that is happening around me. The deaths of the children were inhuman; someone has to answer for it.
All the students demanded justice for the killings done by the BCL and the police officers. It seemed shocking and made us put our thinking hats on when the quota movement coordinators asked for the protest to stop. However, many students didn’t stop the protest because they felt it was time to reform our country again.
After the government restored everything, students returned to the streets to protest against the entire government. They were tired of being shut down whenever they tried to fight for their freedom.
This generation is my favourite because no matter how often our government put us down, we would rise with hundreds of students. The government should be scared of this generation because we refuse to see the system with rose-tinted glasses. They were afraid of us because we will not stand for lies anymore. Hence, they took away our brothers and sisters.
But they forgot how resilient we are. We gave our elders the courage to stand with us and remove the aristocratic government. Our ancestors fought for this country’s independence; just like them, we would regain our independence for the second time.
There is a saying in one of the last Hunger Games books where Katniss Everdeen says, “You can torture us, bomb us, and burn our districts to the ground. But do you see that? Fire is catching… And if we burn... you burn with us!”
Just like in the book, we were attacked by the leaders. But they forget one thing: We can take them down with us.
Armeen Hossain is an intern at Dhaka Tribune.
