Nabin Talukdar. Photo : Collected

PATUAKHALI, May 5, 2025 (BSS) – It was Friday, July 19, 2024. Nabin Talukdar was taking preparations along with his son to attend the Jummah prayers at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the capital’s Paltan area.

At that time, Nabin asked his son to join the Friday prayers at a nearby mosque close to their rented house.

“Tomorrow we’ll play cricket together,” were Nabin’s final words to his son before leaving the house to say his prayers at the National Mosque. He never returned home after that.

Nabin Talukdar, 40-year-old stationery shop and nursery business owner, was reportedly shot dead by police during the anti-discrimination student-protest in Dhaka’s Paltan area. He had been living in the Shyampur area with his elderly mother, wife, and two children.

Nabin, son of late Fakhrul Islam Dhola Talukdar and Shahida Begum (60) of Baufal Upazila of the district, was a joint convener of the upazila Jubo Dal, the youth wing of the BNP.

His wife, Ruma Akter (39), is a housewife. His children -- Hazera Talukdar Ruhanah (15) and Nurnabi Talukdar Rohan (15) -- are both in 9th grade.

Recounting the tragic day, Nabin’s grief-stricken wife, Ruma, in an interview with the BSS burst into tears.

“My husband was shot by police around 4pm on July 19. A bullet hit his head—his skull was shattered, and his brain spilled out. That evening, we came to know that he had died,” she tearfully recalled.

Ruma remembered that in the morning on July 19, she barred Nabin from going outside, saying there was huge unrest on the streets.

“I am not going anywhere. Nothing will happen to me,” she quoted Nabin as he was smiling at her.

That afternoon, Nabin told Ruma over the phone, “Heavy gunfire is going on in the area where I am now, but don’t worry. I'll call you after getting out of the scene”.

“But that call never came. When I called him repeatedly, the call was not answered. Shortly after, someone from the protesters called me and informed me that my husband had died,” Ruma wailed.

Describing the harassment she faced to get her husband’s body from the hospital, Ruma said, “On the next day, I had to run between police stations several times. But no one helped me. Rather the authorities ignored me—as if my husband had committed a crime by becoming a martyr.”

Later, Ariful Islam Arif, a staff of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) from the Baufal upazila, helped her find her husband’s body.

“There were many bodies in the DMCH that day. I identified his (Nabin’s) body based on the description of the clothes and kept it in a secured place, saying that it was my brother’s body though it was risky for me,” Arif told BSS.

Ruma said later she received the body following the autopsy and took the body to Shyampur by the evening on July 20.

She said they even faced additional hurdles in the burial process.

After a namaj-e-janaza in Dhaka, when they brought Nabin’s body to their home at Indrakul village in Baufal, Ruma alleged that local Awami League leader and Suryamani Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Md Anwar Hossain Bachchu prevented them from holding another namaj-e-janaza.

“Even after his death, my husband could not find peace!” wailing Ruma said.

Being unable to hold the namaj-e-janaza in a field, the locals held the funeral prayer in a wetland. Later, Nabin was laid to eternal rest at their family graveyard.

About the assistance she got since her husband’s martyrdom, Ruma said she received Taka 2 lakh from Jamaat-e-Islami and Taka 2.5 lakh from BNP.

Demanding justice for her husband’s killing, Ruma said she filed a case with Paltan Police Station on  August 20 in 2024, naming Sheikh Hasina as the prime accused along with 150–200 unnamed individuals.

“Those who killed my husband must be brought to justice. I want the death penalty for Hasina, the one who gave the orders, and for the police officers involved in the killing,” she said.

Recalling her father’s memory, Nabin’s daughter Hazera burst into tears. “I miss my father a lot. He used to call me ‘Mamoni’ . . . he took me to school,” she tearfully said.

When this correspondent approached Nabin’s sexagenarian mother, Shahida Begum, for her comments about her son, she wailed and said, “I want capital punishment of those who killed my only son. I also want capital punishment for Sheikh Hasina as the mass killing was carried out at her order”.

She added: “I want to see it before I die. Only then I will find peace”.