Md Sujan, a truck driver鈥檚 assistant, was caught in a clash between students demanding reforms in civil service job reservations and the law enforcers, aided by Awami League people, on his way back home at Mohammadpur on July 20.
A bullet pierced Sujan, 24 years old, through the underarm at about 7:20pm on the Gabtali Road along Beribadh in Dhaka.
Someone later called Sujan鈥檚 family to deliver the news. His elder brother Md Rafiqul found Sujan dead in Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College.
鈥業 carried the body in my lap in a rickshaw,鈥� Rafiqul said. Both of their families lived in a rented house at Chand Udyan at Mohammadpur.
Rafiqul, a vendor of sugarcane juice, said that it had taken him about two hours to reach the hospital amidst heavy gunfire on the streets.
But, he found it difficult to hire an ambulance to take the body home in Bhola for burial because the situation on the road was tense.
A few drivers were willing, but they demanded too high a fare. 鈥楩inally, I could hire an ambulance for Tk 50,000 to go to Bhola. It was double the normal fare,鈥� he said on September 25.
Sujan鈥檚 death left his wife Tania Begum, 21 years old, and their son Shuvo, 14 months old, without support. Tania and her son had to move out to live with her in-laws in Bhola.
Sujan, who married his cousin, was the sixth of the eight children of his parents. Tania鈥檚 father is paralysed and has six other children to look after.
Rafiqul said that they could support Tania and her son as long as they would live with them. Rafiqul is unwilling to support Tania if she decides to marry again. 鈥楤ut, we will claim the custody of the child.鈥�
鈥榃e offered her to get married to a brother of ours who is still a bachelor. But, she didn鈥檛 agree,鈥� he said.
Rafiqul, with the help of the Jamaat-e-Islami, filed a murder case with the Mohammadpur police on August 22. The political party gave the family Tk 200,000 after Sujan鈥檚 death and shouldered the responsibility for the child.
The protests, which the students had held since July 1, flared into a mass uprising towards the end of the month, overthrowing the Awami League government on August 5.
The Directorate General of Health Services on September 24 came up with a preliminary list of 708 having died in the protests and subsequent uprising. The figure, however, could rise.
