'How can someone kill a human this way': Rahat's mother wants her son back

17-year-old Rahat Hossain was glued to his smartphone screen on 17 July, lamenting the killing of Abu Sayeed in front of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur over quota reform movement. Rahat showed his mother the video and said, “Look, ma! How the police are killing students.’

Within the next day, on 18 July afternoon, Rahat himself became a victim.

‘I would not have ever let him go if I were aware that my son would join the demonstration. If I knew, I would have joined him, and received the bullet together,’ Rahat’s mother Swapna Begum said.

Rahat was an eleventh grader of Uttara’s Nawab Habibullah Model School and College. He lived with his garment workers mother and grandmother at Gopalpur area of Tongi. Rahat’s father lives abroad.

Rahat Hossain’s family said he died after being shot in the head while taking part in the quota reform movement in Uttara on 18 July.

11 days after the death on Sunday afternoon, the family members were found traumatised. Swapna Aktar is inconsolable after losing her only son. The family returned to Tongi after burying Rahat in his village home in Narsingdi.

‘I only had one son. I dreamt of giving him a good education. I thought he would look after our poor family someday. But now everything is shattered.’

Rahat’s relatives and neighbors gathered at his house when they learnt about the presence of this correspondent. One youth showed a picture of Rahat after he was bullet-hit. The picture showed bullet wounds on the left side of Rahat’s head. His blood-soaked body was lying on the hospital floor.

Swapna took the mobile phone, showed the picture and asked, ‘How can someone kill a human being this way! What crimes did this young child commit that they had to kill him this way? Just look once, how much pain my son underwent before his death.’

Some neighbors said they knew about Rahat’s body at Adhunik Medical College Hospital in Uttara after being shot in the evening on that fateful day. His mother lost consciousness immediately after the news reached her.

Neighbor Md Al-Amin was among the neighbors who went to the hospital to collect the body. Quoting the physicians, he told Prothom Alo, ‘He was taken to the ICU of the hospital but died due to excessive bleeding.’

Swapna now wants the government to give her back her son.

‘They (government) have already given back (reformed) the quota, so now they have to return my son. They returned the quota, the movement stopped and the country became peaceful. But where would I get my son now?’