‘Rony, don’t go out, they will shoot you’: Mother’s fear comes true

“Son, don’t take the rickshaw out. If you take out the rickshaw, they will shoot and kill you.”

This is the last thing Shahana Khatun said to her son Rony Pramanik on mobile phone on the morning of 20 July. 

At the end of the day, the mother’s fears came true. 

At 4pm, Shahana received the news she had been dreading. Her son was dead, shot during the quota reform protests in Savar.

Rony was a rickshaw-puller in Dhaka’s Savar. 

He lived there with his wife and children. He hailed from Panchodas village of Buriganj union in Bogura’s Shibganj upazila, where his mother lives alone in a hut.

Speaking to reporters, Rony’s mother Shahana said, “I called my son on Saturday. I told him if he had rice, to eat it and stay at home. He said he wouldn’t go out. But later he said he had to, to feed him and his children.

“Then he said, ‘Mother, I can’t go home [Bogura]. Like my father, I may die in Dhaka city.” 

Rony’s father Dilbar Pramanik died four years ago. His only sister works at a garment factory in Dhaka. His mother lives alone in Bogura.

Roni’s mother lamented, “My son was killed while driving a rickshaw to earn a living. If my son doesn’t pay for my medicine, I get sick. I only take money for medicine from my son. My son used to pay Tk500-1,000 per month. Now I have no choice but to beg. 

“What will happen to my son’s wife and children? I demand the government to help them.”

Since Rony’s death, his wife Sathi Begum is distraught with their two children – one-and-a-half year old boy Ivan and five-year-old Yasin.

Rony’s body was brought to Bogura by his wife in the early hours of 21 July. He was buried that day.

“There is no food in the house, not even rice and lentils to eat for one meal,” Sathi said.

According to Rony’s relatives and locals, Rony was waiting for passengers at Savar bus stand with a rickshaw when students took to the streets with a procession demanding quota reform. 

At that time, police fired bullets and tear gas shells. 

Rony was shot in the ensuing scuffle. 

He was taken to Enam Medical College Hospital where the doctor declared him dead.

Bogura’s Shibganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge Abdur Rauf said no untoward incident happened due to any quota reform movement in his police station area. 

“However, a rickshaw puller died in Dhaka’s Savar. His body has already been buried.”