Bappy Ahmed loved his daughter Tasfia, four years and a half old, so much that he used to take her wherever he went and would do anything to make her every wish come true.
But, Tasfia, who lost her mother two years ago, now waits for her father to return, not knowing that he left her forever. He died during the student-mass uprising in August 5鈥�6.
Bappy, a 38-year-old man, left home at Mirpur 10 in Dhaka at 11:45pm on August 5. The next day at 4:00pm, the family was told that Bappy was found afloat dead, wounded with rubber bullets, in Hatirjheel.
Tasfia was running around at her grandparents鈥� as her grandmother Suraiya Ahmed was trying to feed her on September 2.
鈥楳y son used to stay indoors most of the time. Tasfia would become restless if she didn鈥檛 see him around. He was very calm. Who killed my son? What was his fault?鈥� she said.
鈥榃e have no one left to look after us,鈥� Suraiya, who has only one daughter alive, said crying.
Bappy was shocked after his 15-year-old cousin Kaif had been shot in the leg at Mirpur 10 on July 19 during the student protests that demanded reforms in civil service job reservations.
Bappy鈥檚 younger sister Umaima Ahmed, a third-year bachelor鈥檚 student at the International University of Scholars, said, 鈥楤appy couldn鈥檛 believe that law enforcers would fire into own people.鈥�
He later joined the protests at Mirpur 10 and distributed water to protesters.
Bappy did not return that night. His sister and aunt had searched for him in Dhaka Medical College Hospital and Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital from morning to noon.
鈥榃e felt numbed seeing countless bodies in the morgues,鈥� Umaima said. 鈥榊et, we hoped that he might have been alive.鈥�
But their hopes were shattered when Suraiya called her daughter and said, 鈥榊ou come back home. He is no more.鈥�
The family filed a murder case with the Hatirjheel police on August 21 against unnamed people.
Suraiya鈥檚 husband, who returned from Saudi Arabia in 2017, could only buy the flat they are living in.
He spent a good amount of money on sending Bappy to London in 2007. Bappy returned home in 2013 and began working as a freelancer.
The interim government on August 28 said that about 1,000 people died in student protests that peaked into a mass uprising, causing the downfall of the Awami League government on August 5.