By Barun Kumar Das

DHAKA, June 10, 2025 (BSS) – Yasin Ahmed Raj, a young man who struggled with poverty since childhood, was the only bread-earner in the family.

Whenever Shahida Begum, mother of martyred Yasin Ahmed Raj, remembers her son's face, she runs to his grave. She stares at her child's grave without taking her eyes off. The air around her becomes heavy with her tears and sighs.

The death of her only bread-earner son has brought deep grief to the family.

Shahida said, "His father divorced me 11 years ago, leaving behind my son Yasin Ahmed Raj and daughter Farzana Akhter. My son Yasin used to run the family by driving a pickup van. My son was my only asset.”

"What will happen to me now? Who will buy medicine for me? And how will I pay the house rent? Where will I get the money for my daughter's education?" he asked countless questions like this.

She said, “My son used to run the family with difficulty. I am sick. I cannot do any work. The girl has grown up. How can I marry her off? How will we survive now? I can't sleep with all these worries and fears.”

While talking to BSS at her rented house on KP Ghosh Street in the Babu Bazar area of Kotwali police station in the capital, Shahida was narrating her son's martyrdom story like this recently.

Fascist Sheikh Hasina was ousted on August 5, 2024 in the face of the indomitable student and public protests and fled the country to India.

After hearing this news, thousands of students, public and common people across the country, including the capital Dhaka, started rejoicing.

However, while the victory celebrations were going on across the country, a chase and counter-chase was still going on at Bangshal intersection in the capital, where police and Awami League terrorists were attacking and firing on students and the general public.

 At one stage, Yasin Ahmed Raj, a pickup van driver, was killed in police firing at Bangshal intersection.

Yasin was a permanent resident of Old Dhaka. His mother is Shahida Begum, 52, and father is Farooq Ahmed, 64. His sister Farzana Akhter is studying in the second year of honors at Badrunnesa College.

Yasin's mother and sister live in a small room rented in the KP Ghosh Street area of the capital.

On the night of August 5, Yasin went out to check if the pickup van was okay. He was shot in the back and died on the spot. He was buried at Azimpur graveyard the next day, August 6, at around 11 am.

Narrating the incident that day, Shaheed Yasin's mother Shahida said that his pickup van had been stopped from driving since August 3 due to the nationwide movement. He used to keep the vehicle in a garage next to Bangshal intersection.

That afternoon, when Sheikh Hasina fled, after having breakfast in the evening, Yasin told his mother, "Mom, I'll check on the pickup van and come soon. I haven't been able to keep any news of the pickup van for the past two days.”

“Now that the movement has stopped, I'll go and check the pickup van out,” Shahida said, quoting Yasin.

Saying this, Yasin left the house. Later, at around 10 pm, his paternal uncle called Shahida and informed her that Raj was shot.

“Then his paternal uncle called us and informed us about the incident. Hearing this, I went to Bangshal intersection with my brother. The shooting was still going on.

“Meanwhile, the students and public immediately took Yasin to Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital, where the doctor on duty declared him dead. Later, we brought the body from the hospital and buried it at Azimpur graveyard the next day,” Shahida said. 

While staying at Yasin's house, this BSS correspondent saw his mother sitting in a small, dark room on the second floor with a picture of her son Yasin. She was repeatedly wiping her face with her hand on the picture and shedding tears.

At the same time, she kept saying, "Where have you gone, my son? Who will look after me? Who will look after your sister? Why did you leave us floating in the sea like this?"

Yasin's younger sister Farzana Akhter said, “My mother always cries after losing my brother. At times, she sits in a corner of the house, speechless with grief. Our family used to run on my brother's income.”

“What will happen to us now? Who will look after us? How will we pay the house rent?” she said.

When asked if she wanted justice for her son's murder, Yasin's mother, Sahida Begum, said, "I demand that those who killed my son be investigated, found, and brought to justice. I want capital punishment for my son's killers."

"After my son was martyred, I saw him. When I went to the hospital, I saw him wrapped in a white shroud," she said.

Expressing her anger, she said, "We don't understand politics. We are ordinary people. I have lost my bread-earner son. The fascist Awami League and mass-killer Sheikh Hasina are responsible for this. I want the guilty to be punished accordingly."

Yasin's maternal uncle Iqbal Hossain said, Yasin visited various areas including TSC, Shahbagh, Ganabhaban and returned home in the evening on the afternoon of August 5.

Then, after eating at home, Yasin went to see the pickup van when he was martyred at Bangshal intersection.

“After his father left them, Yasin took charge of this family. The boy used to run this family with great difficulty. My sister's family used to live on whatever Yasin earned by driving the pickup van. Now this family has no way of earning to survive,” he said.

Rubel Hossain, an employee of Janata Traders located below the house, said that Yasin Ahmed Raj was a very good person.

“The financial condition of Yasin’s family was very weak. His father left them when they were young. Then his mother raised them with great difficulty,” he said.

Meanwhile, Shahida Begum filed a murder case at Bangshal Police Station against 27 people, naming local ward councilor Abu Sayeed as the main accused, in the murder of her son Yasin Ahmed Raj on September 19,2024.