5-year-old Asifa keeps asking when her father will return

“My 5-year-old niece, Asifa, wants to see her father. She keeps asking when her father will return. She does not understand that he will not be coming back,” said Sumaiya Sifa, the younger sister of Md Abdun Noor, who was shot dead in the Jatrabari area of the capital on 5 August.

Speaking to The Business Standard, Sumaiya said that her brother was shot while participating in a programme of the anti-discrimination student movement.

Noor joined the non-cooperation movement demanding the prime minister’s resignation on 5 August along with the students from the Jatrabari area where he was shot.

Sumaiya said that someone brought the body to the morgue of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. His identity was confirmed by the papers and journalist card found in his pocket.

“That night my father received a call saying that [Noor] was shot dead and his body was at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. After that, our relatives went and brought the body,” she said.

Noor was shot in the head, fracturing his skull. He was buried next to his grandfather’s grave in Gafargaon, Mymensingh, the next day.

“Since hearing the news of his death, my mother and sister-in-law have been fainting repeatedly. I am having a very difficult time taking care of them. My sister-in-law is young, and along with the grief of losing her husband, she is now worried about how to raise Asifa,” Sumaiya said.

Noor lived in a mess in the Shonir Akhra area of Jatrabari, while his wife and child lived in their home in Mymensingh.

According to Sumaiya, Noor originally made a living from the wholesale grocery trade. However, two months ago, he started working as a trainee journalist for the online news portal Daily Ajker Goenda Sangbad.

SMK Mizan, editor and publisher of Daily Ajker Goenda Sangbad, said that Abdun Noor was hired as a trainee two months ago.

“We did not send him to collect any news on the field. Abdun Noor was martyred while fighting against injustice,” he said.