It happened two years ago. On the afternoon of 5 August, as news of the fall of the government led by Sheikh Hasina spread and the country erupted in celebration, 21-year-old student Md Hridoy was shot near the Konabari police station in Gazipur.
In a viral video, his lifeless body was seen being carried away by police and several people. Two years have passed, but his family still does not know where he was buried, or whether his body was discarded somewhere.
The young man’s name never made it to the list of July martyrs.
Amid the collapse of state institutions on that bloody day, Hridoy’s disappearance remains an unsolved chapter, lost among the countless lives that fell across the country.
Hridoy’s grandmother told TIMES of Bangladesh, “We have waited for him for years. Hridoy was the golden child of our house.”
His father, Lal Mia, said, “If we could even a piece of him somewhere, his soul might find peace.”
That day, when the Awami League government fell, many people were killed across the country. Some were protesters, some police, some leaders or relatives of the ousted party, and some burned to death after setting fires themselves.
At around 2:30pm that day, Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana left the country by military helicopter, reaching Delhi via Agartala. That same day, the army chief, General Waker-Uz-Zaman, announced he would approach the president to form an interim government.
It was in this chaos that Hridoy’s incident occurred, and his relatives later filed a case.
Over the past two years, four investigators have handled the case. Yet the perpetrators have not been identified.
A continuous struggle
Hridoy was a student at Hemnagar Degree College in Tangail for the 2021-22 academic year. Due to financial hardship, he had to start working at a very young age. His father, Md Lal Mia, is a van driver. He had bought his son a rickshaw. Just three days after he started driving it, he was shot.
Lal Mia told TIMES of Bangladesh that Hridoy earned Tk150 to Tk200 per day driving the rickshaw. He stayed in the Konabari area of Gazipur with his cousin, Md Ibrahim, who also drove an auto-rickshaw.
Hridoy’s elder sister, Yasmin Akhter, said, “My brother was cheerful and always avoided any conflict. Even when people scolded him, he just smiled.”
What happened that day
On the morning of 5 August, Hridoy called his father and asked for Tk3,000. Due to the unrest, he wanted to return home to Tangail. But his cousin Ibrahim urged him to stay in Gazipur and continue driving the rickshaw.
Around 9am, the two brothers went to Tapan Ali’s garage. There, they argued over whether Hridoy should go home. Upset, Hridoy returned to his room and rested on a wooden platform. Eventually, they ate lunch together and rested again.
In the afternoon, news of the government’s fall spread, and thousands joined a victory procession in Konabari. Ibrahim went first; later, he saw Hridoy had also joined.
Around 4:30pm, while standing near the police station, Hridoy received a call from his sister Yasmin. She warned him, “People in Tangail are vandalising Awami League clubhouses. Be careful.”
Hridoy replied, “Sister, there is also a lot of gunfire here. Stay safe. We’ll talk at night.”
At that time, civilians were attacking Konabari police station. Police fired tear gas. In the chaos, Hridoy became separated. He tried to hide in a garage but was caught by police in front of Sharif Medical.
Kaniz Fatema Nishi, a receptionist at Sharif Medical, told TIMES, “Police surrounded him and shot him from behind.”
Ibrahim said, “I didn’t dare go near him. I thought they would kill me too. Later, I saw his body lying in front of the police station.”
Maidul Islam, a student leader of NCP, told TIMES that Abed Ali (described as a police associate and local mastermind and who also runs an electronics shop) had helped destroy evidence was thus implicated.
Later, during remand, it was revealed that Munshi Nil Ratan, an officer at Konabari police station, was also involved in destroying evidence. Requests for CCTV footage were never granted; authorities claimed the cameras were broken.
In a viral clip, a young man is seen carrying Hridoy’s body. Later arrested by Gazipur DB, he was identified as Mahmudul Hasan Alim, a first-year student at IUBAT, now living in Austria.
Alim’s uncle, Shahin, said, “Alim told us that when he first touched Hridoy, he was still alive.”
Abed Ali has denied the allegations of destroying evidence. He said, “Police took the body away. I was only trying to protect my own market.”
