‘Abbu doesn’t talk to me any more’

“Abbu has gone to Allah. Now he does not come to see me, does not take me in his lap, and Abbu does not talk to me anymore on the phone,” said three-year-old Sidratul Muntaha about her father Md Jewel.

Jewel, a 31-year-old private office worker, was participating in a protest with his friends in front of Dania College in the capital’s Shonir Akhra when he was shot in the chest by the police on Sunday, according to his family.

He had gone out in the afternoon that day, promising to bring medicine for his father that night. But at 9pm, his dead body was brought home in an ambulance.

Jewel’s wife, Sumaiya Akhtar, told The Business Standard that she had spoken to Jewel over the phone at 5pm on Sunday. When she asked him about going to Shonir Akhra without informing her, he said nothing would happen and that his friends were with him.

“Then, at 7:48pm, a student from Dhaka Medical College called from [Jewel’s] phone and said there was bad news. He said Jewel had died. He asked for our address, saying they would send the body over,” she said, adding that they later brought the body at around 9pm.

Sumaiya Akhtar said they had been asking Jewel for a week not to go to the protests. But he kept wanting to go.

On Sunday, after lunch, Jewel’s mother tried to stop him and he got angry but did not go out at that time. But later left without informing Sumaiya.

Married in 2019, Jewel and Sumaiya had a 10-month-old son, Mohammad Abdullah, and a 3-year-old daughter, Sidratul Muntaha.

Along with them, Jewel’s father who had recently undergone heart surgery, mother, a brother, and a sister with her child, a total of nine people, lived in a rented house in Dogair New Para area on Basherpul Road.

Jewel’s mother, Nilufa Begum, said, “We do not care if Sheikh Hasina runs away. After so many killings, there is no happiness. May peace return to the country, and no mother’s lap should be emptied like this.”

Jewel’s father, retired garment worker Mohammad Sirajul Islam, is originally from Cumilla but has been living with his wife and children in Dhaka for the past thirty years.

Sirajul Islam said, “I was able to educate my eldest son, Jewel, up to the eighth grade. From a young age, he took care of the household. He worked part-time in addition to his job as a technician to support the family. He was not a boy who would sit idle, he worked very hard. My son left me with great sorrow.”

Jewel’s brother, Md Al Amin, a third-year student of Economics at Demra College, said, “Father recently retired before his surgery. We were dependent on my brother’s income. Now, with my brother’s two small children, my father’s treatment, and everything else, we are spending uncertain days.”

Sharmin Sultana, Jewel’s younger sister, a feedback officer at a private hospital, said, “When he was leaving, I was going to give food to the protesters. For the past few days, the unrest had gotten worse in the Jatrabari area. Many people have been cooking food to give to the protesters.”

“My older brother and I also used to give food. That day I told him to get on the rickshaw with me, but he did not listen. He said he would go to a procession with some friends in Shonir Akhra.”

She said she had received two calls from Jewel’s phone at 5:46pm that day but could not answer. Later, Al Amin informed her that Jewel had been shot and they had to go to the hospital.

“We went to Dhaka Medical College. We searched various places but could not find any news of Jewel. A while later, Al Amin’s friend informed us that the students had brought Jewel’s body home,” she said.

“Later, we contacted Dhaka Medical College several times but did not get the death certificate,” she added.

The family said that Jewel’s companions rushed him to Matuail and Jatrabari hospitals in a rickshaw but were turned away. When they took him to Dhaka Medical College the doctors on duty there declared him dead.

Samiul Alam Khan, a university student who was present at Dhaka Medical College Sunday evening, told TBS that Jewel had been shot in the left side of his chest. Four boys brought Jewel to Dhaka Medical College in a rickshaw. As soon as he was brought to the emergency department, the doctors declared Jewel dead.”

Samiul said, “Looking at the papers in Jewel’s pocket, we contacted his family. We immediately collected Tk5,000 and arranged to send the body to Demra by ambulance.”

The next day, Jewel was buried in Dogair Cemetery in Demra.