On the night of August 5, 2024, 55-year-old SM Sarfuuddin, a wooden furniture businessman from Old Dhaka, left home after Isha prayers — but never returned. He was shot dead by police at Bangshal intersection during the height of the anti-discrimination student movement, just hours after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country amid mass protests.
Sarfuuddin, known for his honesty and devotion, was the only breadwinner of his family. He lived in Bangshal with his wife Selina Khatun, 51, and their three children — Sumaiya (23), a university student who had recently married; Sanjiba (17); and Siam (13), both still in school.
“I don’t understand politics,” Selina said, speaking from their small ground-floor room in Bangshal. “We are ordinary people. My husband went out to pray. The police took him from us. Who will care for my children now?”
Selina rushed to Bangshal after hearing there was shooting. At Dhaka Medical College Hospital, she found her husband’s body. “I saw him lying there. I can’t forget that moment.”
Despite their grief, the family faced bureaucratic hurdles just to obtain Sarfuuddin’s death certificate. “The hospital asked for an admission serial number,” said Selina. “But my husband was bleeding. The sticker was soaked. Why make us suffer more?”
Sarfuuddin was laid to rest at Azimpur graveyard the next day.
His youngest daughter, Sanjiba, still remembers having dinner with him just before he left. “We were celebrating the fall of the fascist regime,” she said. “But within hours, we lost our father. I want justice.”
The family is now struggling to survive. Selina appealed to the interim government for support. “My children need education. My husband is gone, but their future must not be.”
Sarfuuddin’s relatives remember him as a kind, religious man who ran a wooden furniture shop called Noor Traders. “He prayed five times a day,” said his cousin Nasir. “Now he’s just a memory.”
His brother-in-law, Ripon, added tearfully, “He never did politics. But politics took him from us.”
Selina wants her husband officially recognized as a martyr of the people’s movement. “I pray no family has to go through this. All I ask is that the government help my children continue their education and build a future — the future their father dreamed of for them.”