Naima Sultana, 15 years old, was different from others her age. While many remain glued to their mobile screen, she loved to study and would draw when she was free.
Her mother Aynun Nahar gave Naima her lunch at four o鈥檆lock in the afternoon on July 19 and asked her to go to sleep. She got down to drawing, instead.
Gunfire and explosions shook the neighborhoods around the House Building area at Uttara that day.
Clashes had already broken out between students demanding reforms in civil service job reservations and law enforcers.
Naima鈥檚 family lives on the fourth floor of a building on Road 5 in Sector 9 in Dhaka.
Naima entered her mother鈥檚 room an hour after to show her what she had drawn. And, she left the room, telling her mother that she would go onto the balcony to collect the clothes put there to dry up.
Aynun followed her daughter so that she could not stay there for
long. She felt that something bad might happen. And, it did.
鈥業 saw her slowly lying down on the floor while she was holding the railing. She was shot in the head,鈥� Aynun said, crying on September 27.
Neighbours helped her to take Naima to Uttara Modern Hospital, which is near by. 鈥楶olice fire outside sent physicians and nurses running to safety. Naima was left inside the lift for a few minutes,鈥� said Aynun, who accompanied her.
She saw several bodies in the hospital. There were some other people wounded with bullets lying in beds and on the floor.
Naima was pronounced dead at around 8:30pm. She was buried in their hometown of Matlab in Chandpur the next day.
Naima鈥檚 father Golam Mostofa, a homoeopath, sent his wife and three children to Dhaka in 2021 for good education of the children. But, he stayed back in Chandpur for his homeopathic practice.
Naima, a Class X student at the Milestone School and College, had wanted to become a doctor since her childhood. 鈥榃e spent all our money on our children for their bright future.鈥�
Traumatised, the family wanted to leave Dhaka forever but stayed back considering the future of the two children 鈥� daughter Taspiya Sultana, a Class XI student at the Milestone College and son Abdur Rahman, a Class II student.
Taspiya, a year and a half senior to Naima, does not want to go out now, fearing that she might be killed, too. She has been taking sleeping pills since Taspiya鈥檚 death every night. Abdullah often wakes up at night screaming, 鈥楩iring! Firing!鈥�
The protests, held since July 1, flared into a mass uprising towards the end of the month and overthrew 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 be rising.
