‘Come to Sholashahar’: Wasim’s final Facebook post adorns the wall
A framed photograph of martyr Mohammad Wasim sits against a red backdrop. Beside it are five Facebook statuses posted from his profile, ‘Wasim Akram,’ during the July movement. They have been framed and hung on the wall. Despite the small font, the final status is easy to read. A three-word call to action. As if there was nothing more to say, no time to lose.
“Come to Sholashahar.”
Reading it two years later still sends a shiver down the spine. Hours after posting this on 16 July, 2024, Wasim was shot dead during the anti-quota movement in Chattogram’s Sholashahar.
The last house at the end of a brick road near the high school in the area of Cox’s Bazar’s Pekua belongs to Wasim’s family. The roads surrounding their one-storey house are currently submerged in floodwaters. When the correspondent waded through the water to reach the house last Tuesday, Wasim’s mother, Josna Begum, came out to speak.
On the right side of the drawing room stands a table lined with 18 to 20 crests. They were presented by different organisations and institutions in recognition of Wasim’s courageous contribution. Placing her hand over the crests, Josna Begum said, “These days I miss my son even more. There was flooding like this in 2023 as well. Back then, he rushed home from Chattogram. He waded through the water to buy groceries and did everything that needed to be done. This time, he is not here.”
On 16 July 2024, Mohammad Wasim was martyred in Chattogram’s Sholoshahar during the anti-quota movement. At the time, he was a third-year sociology student at Chattogram College and joint convener of the Chattogram College unit of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal.
The second of five siblings, Wasim passed his SSC from Mehernama High School in Pekua in 2017 and his HSC from Bakalia Government College in Chattogram in 2019. He later enrolled in the Sociology Department at Chattogram College. He was awaiting the results of his third year when he was killed.
“A little while ago, someone from Chattogram called to say that a programme is being organised on 16 July to mark Wasim’s martyrdom. They invited me and his father to attend on behalf of the family. Since then, I have been thinking about my son constantly. That is why I have been touching the crests that carry his memories,” said Josna Begum.
Whenever she sees anything bearing Wasim’s image, she feels a desperate urge to touch it, only for her heart to ache with the weight of the void
Josna Begum said she no longer sleeps properly at night. She wakes up repeatedly in the night, thinking Wasim has come home. Then reality sets in again, and pain overwhelms her entire body.
One of Wasim’s sisters is married. Another, Sabrina Yasmin, is a second-year HSC student at a college in Chattogram. She had come home before the floods and has since been stranded there. As the conversation turned to the day Wasim was martyred, Sabrina recalled the events of 16 July 2024.
She said students protesting for quota reform had planned to hold a demonstration at Sholoshahar Railway Station in Chattogram that day. Early in the morning, her brother posted a Facebook status urging students and the public to gather in the Sholoshahar area. Before the programme was scheduled to begin at 3:30pm, leaders and activists of the Jubo League and Chhatra League had already taken positions at the station. They were carrying sticks, stones and weapons. Wasim and two others were shot dead that day.
“My brother gave his life for democracy. It is through his martyrdom that democracy has returned. Now, in this democratic country, I want justice for those who killed my brother,” said Sabrina.
On 13 June, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman and his wife Zubaida Rahman visited Wasim’s grave and offered condolences to his parents. At the time, his mother, Josna Begum, made just one request to the prime minister, that the trial of those responsible for her son’s killing be expedited.
While speaking with Wasim’s mother and sister, his father, Shafiul Alam, was working at a fish enclosure about one and a half kilometres away. Speaking there, he said, “Every day, at some point, I go and sit beside Wasim’s grave. I talk to my son. When I’m there, I never feel like leaving him behind. It feels as though my son is saying, ‘Father, don’t leave me.’”
“My son sacrificed his life to save the country. He made us proud. Now we have only one demand. Justice for those who killed Wasim and all the other martyrs. Only then will we find peace,” he added.