Sanjida was hit with a bullet in the lower abdomen as she turned to step inside the room with her daughter, who stepped out onto the balcony a while before.
Rabbi collapsed onto the floor immediately after being hit and Roni was hit in the armpit.
Sanjida Akter, 20 years old, Rabbi Mia, 22 years old, and Hafizul Islam Roni, 22 years old, all stepped onto the balcony on the third storey of the building to see who was crying down on the street.
And, they were all hit with bullets moments after they had ventured out of the room at about 5:00pm
It was July 20, the first day of the curfew ordered to quell student protests that were seeking reforms in civil service job reservations.
Helicopters flying above and gunshots fired by law enforcers and Awami League activists shook Painadi Natun Mahalla, a neighbourhood at Siddhirganj in Narayanganj.
Rabbi lay still on the floor until 3:30am on July 21 as no ambulance could be managed.
Rabbi鈥檚 nephew Parvej Sarkar, who lives in the Signboard area, could later manage a freezer van to take the body to Rabbi鈥檚 hometown of Jamalpur.
Roni and Sanjida were taken to Pro-Active Medical College and Hospital in an auto-rickshaw that could be managed after much hassle.
Roni and Rabbi, employed as technicians at Walton, lived in a rented room in the flat of Sanjida鈥檚 mother. Sanjida and her five-year-old daughter lived with her mother in the flat.
鈥業 saw Rabbi collapse onto the floor. Then, I noticed blood on my arm. I didn鈥檛 know where the bullets had come from,鈥� Roni said on September 12.
Rabbi, a student of electrical and electronics engineering in the South East University, called his elder brother Antor Mia and friends to tell them not to go outside amidst the gunshots, little knowing that even staying indoors was not safe for him either.
鈥楬ow can a person die inside the house like that? How can we accept it?鈥� said Antor, now the only surviving son of his parents, on September 17.
Rabbi鈥檚 mother had not spoken to him for two days. As she wanted to speak to Rabbi, Antor, who was in Jamalpur that time, called Rabbi after 5:00pm only to know that he had died.
鈥楳y mother could not accept Rabbi鈥檚 death. I still cannot believe that he is no more. We were very close,鈥� Antor said.
The sole breadwinner of the family that live in Barishal, Roni said that he had found it difficult to lift heavy objects. He has already spent Tk 55,000 on his treatment. It is difficult for him to spend more from Tk 12,000 that he earns a month.
Sanjida, faced with a troubled marriage, said that she had not yet fully recovered. It is difficult for her to arrange money for further treatment.
The government on August 28 said that about 1,000 people had died in student protests that flared into a mass uprising and toppled the Awami League government on August 5.