In a heart-wrenching incident that shook the conscience of the nation, 17-year-old Asifur Rahman, a madrasa student and garment worker, was shot dead during a student-led anti-discrimination protest in Dhaka’s Mirpur on July 19 last year.
“Father, I won’t live anymore. I couldn’t fulfil your dreams. Forgive me. Let go of all your expectations of me,” the teenager whispered to his father as he bled from a bullet wound to the head, on the way to the hospital in a rickshaw. Moments later, he breathed his last.
Asifur Rahman was shot at near the Mirpur 10 roundabout. Witnesses and his family members allege he was hit in the head by a bullet during a joint attack by police and activists of the Awami League, Chhatra League, and Jubo League.
At their modest residence on Abbas Uddin Road in Mirpur-10, Asifur’s father, Azmat Hossain, recalled the tragic sequence of events. “My son wasn’t involved in politics,” he said. “He just went out around 5:30 pm saying he would meet some friends. At 6 pm, he called me: ‘Abba, come quickly, I had an accident.’”
By the time Azmat reached Alok Hospital, his son was already unconscious, bleeding from a head wound. Doctors there referred them to Suhrawardy Medical College, and then to the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital (NINH). Along the way, Asifur, conscious but fading, begged for forgiveness and admitted he would not survive.
Doctors at NINH declared him dead around 9:40 pm.
“I hired an ambulance with Tk 3,000 to take my son’s body home, and later spent Tk 12,500 to transport it to our village,” Azmat said. Asifur was buried at the Kerengapara-Phulpur graveyard in Sherpur’s Nalitabari upazila the following day.
Asifur was the second of six siblings. His mother, Fazila Khatun, now lives in the village with their younger children. “He was calm, never political, and was studying to become a Hafeez,” she told one of the news agencies.
“He took up a garment job to support us. His death has shattered our world.”
On the day of his death, violence had broken out across several areas of Dhaka including Mirpur, Badda, Rampura and Pragati Sarani, during student protests. Asifur, according to family members, had pulled out his phone to capture the unfolding chaos when a bullet struck him.
His cousin Anwar Hossain confirmed, “He was trying to take a photo when he was shot.”
Azmat Hossain has since filed a murder case against 201 individuals, including former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, holding them responsible for his son’s death. “I want justice,” he said firmly.
“Those who murdered my son must face trial and be given the capital punishment—so no other mother loses her child like this,” he added.