INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
She may not have fired the gun but Mahabubar Rahman knows who killed Shoikot, his beloved only son
by allegations of tyranny, violence and corruption, to a dramatic end
While Hasina was accused of countless human rights abuses during her tenure, nothing would compare with what took place in the last weeks of
July and early August, as she desperately clung to power at the cost of more than 1,000 lives.The protest movement that instigated her
unexpected downfall began small, as student protests on campuses
But Hasina, notoriously intolerant of dissent, was rattled; in response, she authorised a campaign of terror and vengeance led by the most
feared battalions of police and paramilitary
Protesters were met with batons, tear gas, rubber bullets, metal pellets, beatings, mass arrests, judicial torture and eventually live
ammunition, sometimes fired from helicopters
Yet as the crackdown intensified and more bodies lay in the streets, the movement swelled into an all-out revolution.On 5 August, as almost
capital, Dhaka, the army chief refused to issue orders for a massacre of civilians
Instead, he gave Hasina an ultimatum: leave now or likely be killed at the hands of the masses
She jumped on a helicopter with her sister and fled over the border to India, where she still remains.View image in fullscreenPhoto of
Mahamudur Rahman Shoikot and his watch
He was killed in the August massacre
Photograph: Sazzad Hossain/The ObserverWith Bangladesh now run by an interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize-winning
Last week, the death toll was finally confirmed to be more than 1,000 people, while about 400 protesters lost their sight in at least one
eye from the police pellet firing.Many, like Rahman and his family, are determined to fight for justice for the deaths of their loved ones
They are among more than 100 families who have been emboldened to file police cases directly naming Hasina, her top ministers, senior police
commissioners and officers as the accused responsible, citing the whole chain of command as culpable
Video footage collected from that day clearly shows armed police firing live ammunition at protesters at the spot where his son was slain,
The 19-year-old student, described as the baby of the family, was doted on almost overbearingly by his elder sisters and his parents, who
all called him Tuna and rarely let him leave their side.His sister, Sabrina Afroz Sabonti, 22, bought him his first bicycle and baked him
Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty ImagesAs the protests began to erupt in Dhaka, his mother firmly banned him from taking part
Yet Shoikot was furious, secretly ranting on social media that he felt like a coward stuck inside, while his brothers and sisters were dying
He never came home.As their Dhaka neighbourhood became a war zone, thick with smoke, acrid tear gas, the sounds of police firing guns and
Finally, a stranger picked up and delivered devastation to his father
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But as they took her not to the medical ward but the morgue, she moaned in despair.There was Shoikot, cold and still and covered in blood
from a gunshot wound to his head
Other bodies hit with bullets in their heads and chest lay by his side
to get home, she finally delivered the news to her mother, who, engulfed in grief, ran outside to the streets, screaming amid the sound of
From then, until 5 August, the terrified family locked themselves inside their apartment, never leaving even as police were going
door-to-door ransacking houses as they searched for students.The day the news broke that Hasina had fled, millions began to flood the
But for Sabonti and her father, they headed in the other direction
gone, the pursuit of justice has been complex
of Hasina returning to face justice in Bangladesh is also uncertain
relationship with the government makes her extradition unlikely
While it is reported Hasina has requested asylum in the UK, which is where her son lives, experts say it is very unlikely to be granted
will be a case only suitable for the international courts
While her mother still weeps in her arms at home every morning, her father refuses to break down in front of his family
Instead, she watches him on the CCTV as he sobs quietly in his shop all day.
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
