“He had left home to perform his professional duties. He was never involved with any political party or activities. Why did BNP-Jamaat men brutally kill him then?”
These words were uttered by Ruma Akter, widow of police constable Md. Amirul Islam alias Parvez (33), who was killed in a clash between police and BNP leaders and activists surrounding the opposition party’s grand rally in Dhaka on October 28.
She added, “He (Amirul) had a beautiful family and a daughter. That girl still waits for her father to return. 'Let's go and bring abbu home,’ my daughter says.”
Read: No graves where these families can offer prayers for their loved ones
Ruma was speaking at an event organised at Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka on the occasion of Human Rights Day being observed today. Her seven-year-old daughter Tanha Islam accompanied her at the event.
The event, under the banner of ‘Mayer Kanna O Agnishontrasher Artonad’, demanded justice for human rights violations. It included family members of freedom fighters-turned-armed forces officers who were executed under BNP founder Gen Ziaur Rahman’s rule as well victims of arson violence perpetrated by BNP-Jamaat activists over the years.
Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud, and other leaders of Awami League, also attended the event.
The event also highlighted the case of Abu Nayeem, helper of a bus who recently died in an arson attack in the Demra area of Dhaka during a hartal called by BNP-Jamaat. His mother said, "My son was so badly burnt, I couldn't even recognize his face!"
Shahadat Hossain from Narsingdi, a victim of 2013-14 violence also shared his painful experience.
Nasima Ferdous, severely injured in the grenade attack on an Awami League rally on August 21, 2004, described living with splinters in her body.
Maksuda Parveen, daughter of an Air Force sergeant disappeared in 1977, recounted losing her father at the age of three and spending 47 years mourning his loss.
Read: Family members of victims of BNP-Jamaat rule demand justice at Dhaka rally
In 1977, during Zia’s rule, her father fell prey to what is deemed by researchers and historians as the “biggest purge” in the country’s armed forces that saw freedom fighters turned officers ruthlessly executed without trial and their bodies disposed of without informing their families.