Photo: Collected

MYMENSINGH, May 28, 2025 (BSS) – Hafez Nur-e-Alam Siddiqi Rakib had left home in the morning on July 20 in 2024 with a simple task — to buy medicine for his pregnant, ailing wife. But instead of returning with medicines, he returned as a lifeless body.

His body came back wrapped in silence, leaving behind an unborn child and a newlywed wife lost in grief. Rakib, a 21-year-old Hafez of the Holy Quran, was shot dead during the anti-discrimination student movement in the district.

His wife Sadia Akter burst into tears when this correspondent approached her for comments about her martyred husband.

“I was unwell for days. Therefore, my husband went to Kaltapara Bazar in Gouripur to bring medicine for me that morning. But at that time, clashes were continuing between student protesters and police and the then ruling party activists.

“When my husband was filming the clashes on his mobile phone, a bullet struck him, leaving him spot dead,” Sadia tearfully said. She sighed deeply, saying, “There is no one else who can take care of us.”

Rakib’s 56-year-old mother, Nurun Nahar, fainted after hearing that her son had been shot. She was immediately taken to the hospital. By the time she returned home that night, Rakib had already been buried.

Rakib’s father, Abdul Halim (62), is a teacher and director of Dawgaon Talimul Quran Women’s Madrasa in Gauripur here. Halim said Rakib was the only son among his four children. Rakib’s two sisters are married, and the youngest is still studying in a madrasah.

The family had high hopes centering Rakib. He had a beautiful voice, and a love for recording videos. His Facebook page is filled with devotional songs.

“We thought he would be the torchbearer of our family, the light of our lineage. Now the light is extinguished,” Rakib’s grief-stricken father said.

The family got Rakib married on January 12 in 2024 in Palashkanda village in neighboring Ishwarganj upazila. His wife, Sadia Akhtar, is also a madrasah student.

“Since my son’s death, our family has fallen apart,” he tearfully said, adding, “My daughter-in-law Sadia is devastated. She cries constantly. It’s unbearable to even look at her. Her eyes carry a pain I cannot describe.”

On the day of the tragedy, Halim said he along with his wife went to a relative’s wedding ceremony while around 12.30pm, they received news that Rakib had been shot. The bullet pierced the left side of his chest.

“My wife fainted instantly hearing the news and was rushed to Mymensingh Medical College Hospital,” Halim said.

As Rakib was shot dead, he said, local Union Parishad Chairman Abdul Al Amin Jony instructed them to bury the body quickly and reportedly discouraged public announcements or miking for the janaza. Therefore, Rakib was buried quietly in the family graveyard that evening, he added.

“When my wife returned home from the hospital around 10pm, our only son, Rakib, had already been laid to his eternal rest,” Halim lamented.

With a heavy voice, Rakib’s father tearfully said, “I made my son Hafez, dreaming that one day he would conduct my namaj-e-janaza. I hoped to leave this world being carried on his shoulders. But fate reversed it — I carried my own son to his grave. Only a heartbroken father knows this pain”.