‘Ma, I wasn’t even at the protests. Why did police shoot me?’: Minor Yasin said in his deathbed

As 17-year-old Yasin laid in his deathbed, a haunting question lingered in his mind: Why was he shot when he wasn’t even among the protesters of the quota movement?

Yasin Sheikh, a delivery person for an LP Gas shop in the capital’s Jatrabari area, sustained a bullet injury during the violence surrounding the quota movement at Jatrabari on 20 July.

Yasin’s mother, Monjila Begum, got a call that day that her son had been shot. 

She rushed to the scene and found Yasin lying on the ground, riddled with bullet.

Seeing his mother, Yasin said, “I was not at the procession, mother. I was just delivering a gas cylinder to a customer. Why did the police shoot me?”

Yasin was then taken to Mugda Medical College Hospital, where he died on 25 July after fighting for his life for six days.

He was buried at his village home in Khulna’s Rupsha upazila on Friday (26 July).

Yasin’s story follows a life full of struggles. He had lost his father when he was just two years old. 

Due to the financial crisis that followed his father’s death, he could not join school. 

His mother, Monjila Begum, supported him by working as a house help. 

Two years ago, Monjila Begum moved to Dhaka with Yasin and his sister. 

They live in a small room in Matuail.

Recounting that fateful day, Yasin’s mother said, “That morning, my son told me, ‘Mother, you have been working all your life. Now that I have started working, you can stay at home.'”

“Yasin’s dream remained unfulfilled,” Monjila Begum said.