At least 16 children, including nine students and a preschooler, were killed and scores of others were injured in violent clashes during recent student protests for quota reform in public services.
The actual number of dead and injured children is expected to increase as detailed information about many victims, including their age, profession, and the circumstances that led to their killings, is still unavailable.
Family members and physicians confirmed that all 16 deaths of children were due to bullet injuries, mostly to the head.
Relatives alleged that indiscriminate firing by the police and Border Guard Bangladesh resulted in the deaths of children.
Out of the child victims, families confirmed that four were killed at home when they were with their parents.
Of them, six-year-old girl Riya Gope died while undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on Wednesday from a bullet injury she sustained to her聽 head on the rooftop of their house in Narayanganj on July 19.
Riya鈥檚 father, Dipak Kumar Gope, said that she went to the rooftop of their four-storey house, where she was hit by a bullet in the head.
鈥楽he was on my lap when the bullet hit her from the top. I don鈥檛 know who fired it,鈥� he told 抖阴精品 over the phone聽on Sunday.
Another victim Abdul Ahad, 4, son of Abul Hasan, living in the capital鈥檚 Rayerbagh, sustained a bullet injury to his head on July 19 at their home.
鈥楢had was sleeping at noon. The huge crowd broke his sleep, and he went to the balcony of my flat on the 7th floor of an 11-storey building,鈥� said Hasan, a government employee.
He said that the bullet hit his small head near his right eye when they were very close to him. 鈥業 could not sense where the bullet came from,鈥� he said, adding that protesters and police were clashing near his home at that time.
A 15-year-old girl named Nayeema Sultana died within hours as two bullets hit her forehead when she went to their veranda to collect clothes on July 19.
Her father, Golam Mostafa, said that after jumma prayers, protesters and police clashed near his home in the capital鈥檚 Uttara.
鈥業 cannot relate to how a bullet hit my daughter on the veranda on the third floor,鈥� he said.
Nayeema, a ninth-grade student at Milestone School and College, was buried without an autopsy as there was a huge protest in that area, he said.
Fifth-grader Shafkat Samir was shot dead when he was closing a window of his home to stay safe from tear shells during massive clashes over the quota reform protests at Kafrul in the city鈥檚 Mirpur area on July 19.
In the blink of an eye, a bullet pierced the head of the 11-year-old madrassah student, entering through his eye and exiting through the back of his head, and he died on the spot, said his father, Sakibur Rahman.
Mashiur Rahman, 17, the uncle of the kid, also sustained bullet injuries to his shoulder at the same time.
In another incident, Md Ifti, 15, a mechanic at a CNG garage in the capital鈥檚 Rampura, died from a bullet injury he sustained to his head on July 19.
His father, Md Yunus Sarder, a driver, said that Ifti was returning home with his friends after taking a bath in a local pond when police and protesters clashed.
In Narsingdi, ninth-grader Tahmid Bhuiyan Tamim died on the spot after he sustained a bullet during a clash between students and police on July 18.
Tamim was a student at Nasima Kadir Molla High School and Home.
Tamim鈥檚 father, Rafiqul Islam Bhuiyan, alleged that the security agency shot the body of Tamim once again when his friends tried to remove the body with a stretcher.
On July 19, Md Shuva, 16, a rickshaw mechanic, died from a bullet injury that he sustained hours back in the capital鈥檚 Dhanmondi.
Razu Islam, a cousin of the victim, said that Shuva sustained a bullet just above his ear.
Ideal School and College student Mostafa Zaman, 17, died from a bullet injury on July 19 in an incident in the capital鈥檚 Rampura.
College student Imam Hossain Tayeeb, son of Moynal Hossain, sub-inspector of police at Rajarbagh police lines, died from a bullet injury on July 20 in an incident in the capital鈥檚 Rajarbagh.
In Narayanganj, garment factory worker Md Rasel, 15, died from a bullet injury on July 19.
Ten-year-old hawker Hosen Mia died at DMCH after he sustained bullet injuries in a clash on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway on July 20.
On July 18, Saiman Hossain, 14, an employee of a grocery shop, died in a clash at Bahaddarhat in Chattogram.
Six-grader Sad Mahmud, a student at Jabale Noor Cadet School, died at Enam Medical College Hospital in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital.
Dhanmondi Ideal College student Khalid Hasan, 16, died from a bullet injury he sustained during a clash in the capital鈥檚 Azimpur on July 18.
Arafatur Rahman Akash, 16, a fruit vendor, died from his bullet injury in a clash on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway on July 21.
Another victim, Rakib Hasan, 10, died at the capital鈥檚 National Institute of Neurosciences Hospital.
Child rights activist and LEEDO executive director Farhad Hossain said that many children who stayed on the streets became victims of violence as well, but there was no count of them.
He said that the government was obliged to uphold the well-being of children as a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
He urged the authorities to ensure the safety and security of all children everywhere and any time.
Kazi Reazul Hoque, a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, said that all unnatural deaths are unacceptable. It is very unacceptable if it happens to minors because children are certainly innocent.
鈥楨ach of the incidents should be investigated, and justice should be ensured for the victims,鈥� he said.
Over 200 people were killed and several thousand others were injured in clashes between July 18 and 21 and in their aftermath.
