Violence during the countrywide student movement for quota reform in government jobs has left many families in grief and sorrow after having lost their family during clashes with police and other forms of roadside violence.
Sometimes, such sorrow and suffering are multiplied by the harsh realities of life when a financially struggling family loses their main breadwinner.
Amzad is one of the 373 victims killed in violence caused by attacks on protesters during protests against the Sheikh Hasina regime, which students started with protests for public job quota reforms, by the law enforcers backed by Awami League activists between July 16 and August 5.
Amzad, a 44-year-old vendor, was the main wage earner for his three-member family: himself, widow Kuhura and 16-year old son Kabir Hossain, selling fish on a footpath of Basundhara area in the capital Dhaka.
He was a resident from Narda, Vatara in the capital hailing from Melandah Bazar in Jamalpur. On July 19, he went to collect due money after selling fish. While returning to his house in the afternoon, he was hit by a bullet in his left eye during the clash between protesters and law enforcers at Narda. Local people took him to nearby Apollo Hospital, said Amzad鈥檚 younger brother Imtiaz Ali, who is also a fish seller.
Remembering the day, Kuhura described that she went to the hospital hearing about the incident and found her husband lying on bed with bandages on his head and an oxygen mask on his mouth. Doctors told her to take him to a government hospital and Amzad was taken to Kurmitola General Hospital, where doctors declared him dead that night.
Amzad was the main source of income in the family, living in a rented one-room in a building. Financial struggles of the family left no choice for Kuhura to start working. She would work at construction sites as a day labour for the past couple of months earning Tk 400 only on a daily basis, said Kuhura.
The financial situation of the family did not allow them to bear the educational expenses for聽 Kabir-the son of the family-and he started working as a supporting hand in a glossary shop to earn a little money, mentioned Kuhura.
Lamenting her irreplaceable loss with the death of Amzad, she said, 鈥極nly God knows how the family will survive without him!鈥�
鈥榃e do not have our own house to live anywhere,鈥� said Kuhura, adding, 鈥榃e are left homeless.鈥�
She also mentioned that the family could not pay the dues of Tk 13,000 for past two months for the rented room.
鈥楰abir has been crying loudly thinking his father since his death. We don鈥檛 know anything about our future,鈥� lamented Kuhura, who has been living in Imtiaz鈥檚 house since the death of Amzad.
After the autopsy of Amzad in Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, he was buried at the family graveyard in Melandah Bazar, Jamalpur on the night of July 20.