A video captured during the 2024 July Uprising shows two unarmed youths standing in front of a group of police. One of them (police) is pointing a gun and firing at a youth. And another youth is trying to pull away the first one who is being shot. But after failing to save the wounded youth the second one runs away with a bullet injury to himself, in his leg.
The incident took place on July 20 last year when the then government launched a massive crackdown to suppress the student-led mass uprising that evolved from a student movement demanding just quota reform in government jobs.
The boy, who was seen lying on the street being hit by bullets in the video, was Imam Hasan Taim Bhuiyan, a 12th grader at Narayanganj Govt Adamjee Nagar MW College in Narayanganj. And the boy, who was trying to rescue Taim braving the firing, was his friend Rahat Hossain. Taim, however, died on the same day.
His father Md Moynal Hossain Bhuiyan is a police officer, currently working at Rajarbag Police Lines.
Hailing from Chandina Upazila in Cumilla, Taim’s family had been living at Purba Rasulpur of Kajla in the city’s Jatrabari area until Taim’s death. Currently they reside at Khilgaon area.
His mother Parvin Akter is a house wife while his eldest brother Rabiul Awal is a master’s student at Sylhet Agricultural University and his second brother Jahid Hasan is an undergrad student at a university in Moscow, Russia.
According to family members, Taim actively participated in the demonstration from the beginning of the quota reform movement.
“At first, I debarred my son from joining the street protest. But witnessing the oppression of the protesters, I encouraged him to stand against the injustice,” Taim’s grief-stricken mother, Parvin, said.
Parvin not only inspired her son to protest against the injustice, she herself also joined the movement with her son, usually to keep an eye on Taim’s movement.
But, on July 20, she could not go out because she was stuck at work. And that day, a deep depression descended on Taim’s family. His mother Parvin and other family members could never imagine that they would lose him forever.
Taim’s father Moynal Hossain, who is a senior sub-inspector at Rajarbagh Police Lines, knew about his son’s involvement in the quota reform movement. But he didn’t stop his son from joining the street protests since the demand was a fair one. However, he advised him to be very careful.
Referring to Rahat, Taim’s brother Rabiul said the curfew, which was imposed from midnight on July 19 last year amid the student movement that eventually turned into the mass uprising, was relaxed from 12noon to 2:00 pm on that day.
Around 12:10 pm, Taim went to the movement, saying his mother that he was going downstairs. Soon after he joined the movement at Kajla area, police charged batons and opened fire at the protesters when Taim and his friend Rahat along with another one took shelter inside a tea stall near Kazla foot overbridge.
Rabiul said, but police forced the tea stall owner to open the shop and brought out Taim, his friend and the third person from the shop and beat them up. At one stage, police told them to run away. As Taim was running away, police opened fire at him.
When Taim’s friend, Rahat, came forward to save him, the police started beating Rahat severely, Rabiul shared, adding, at that moment, Taim told the police-men that he was the son of a police man. Then the police personnel verbally abused him, saying, “Ask your father to come here”.
At that time, Rahat tried his best to save his friend, standing in front of the gun. Finally, he himself was shot in the leg and he had to give up. At one point, he left Taim and ran away.
Due to the police’s violent behavior, no one had any chance of rescuing him. So, redirecting their efforts, some locals took Rahat to the hospital.
According to Rahat, when police were putting Taim on a van to take him to the Jatrabari Police station, he was still alive.
But, referring to another video, Taim’s brother Rabiul said when his brother’s body became nearly lifeless due to excessive bleeding; some police members were seen hitting him with their shoes in front of Jatrabari Police Station, breaking Taim’s nose.
After a while, Rabiul recalled, someone went to their house and informed them that Taim had been shot in Kajla area.
Then Rabiul and his maternal aunt, Shahida Akter, rushed to the spot and learned that Taim had been taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Following a frantic search, Rabiul recounted, they finally found his brother’s lifeless body in the morgue.
“The police showed the highest brutality to my brother. The autopsy report showed more than two hundred bullet marks in his body. His body was riddled with bullets,” Rabiul said with profound grief.
Earlier, a comment of Taim’s father Moynal was much circulated in different news media where he was asking someone over phone, “How many bullets does it need to kill a person, sir?” He asked the question after seeing the bullet marks on his son’s body.
Taim’s maternal aunt said police tried to ‘disappear’ Taim’s body from the DMCH. “Even after the police identified him as a child of a policeman, they tried to hide it,” Shahida recalled and said finally they got the body following a frantic search at the hospital morgue.
Rabiul recounted the memories of how police and local Awami League cadres obstructed them in every step of Tiam’s burial process.
When they took Taim’s body to their ancestral home at Chandina in Cumilla for burial on July 21 last year, he said, the police set a time limit of half an hour for the burial.
Besides, local Etbarpur Union Parishad Chairman Abu Yusuf barred them from announcing Taim’s death on the mosque’s microphone. He also hurried Taim’s family to complete burial rituals quickly.
Abu Yusuf then started circulating that Taim was not a martyr. He was a Shibir worker. He died while carrying out a terrorist movement.
The untimely death of Taim has devastated his family. His mother Parvin Akter is still traumatized.
Though the the fascist government was overthrown on August 5 last year in face of the student-led massive uprising, his family is still awaiting justice.
The family now demands justice for the loss of Taim.
“I want justice. I want capital punishment for the perpetrators,” Parvin said resolutely.
