‘We were forcibly taken to meet Hasina,’ says Abu Sayeed’s older brother

The family of Abu Sayeed has claimed they were forcibly taken to meet the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. 

Abu Sayeed was a student from the English Department of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur and the first martyr of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.

“My brother became a martyr. We did not ask the government for help or justice. Local Awami League leaders and the upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) forced us to go to Dhaka as the prime minister wanted to meet our family,” said Abu Hossen, Sayeed’s elder brother, in an exclusive interview with TBS. 

“Our local UNO took us to Dhaka on 27 July. We could never have imagined that Sheikh Hasina would fall so soon. We wouldn’t have gone there if we knew she would fall, even with pressure,” he added. 

“In Dhaka, we were accommodated in a hotel next to the police lines. Our UNO repeatedly called and told us not to leave the hotel because our family is ‘a national issue’. They left a driver to take care of us,” Abu Hossen continued. 

“Before we went to the hotel, we were told that the injured students and their families would be there. But we only found AL men who were injured while attacking the students. There were a few police and Ansar members as well,” he said. 

Sayeed’s elder brother said, “A man at the hotel asked us why we came. ‘The person who killed your son has now called you to console you,’ the man told us.

“Then our mother said, ‘Let’s leave this place.'”

“I thought our local UNO would lose his job if we ran away. If we had known that the prime minister would leave the country so soon, we would have left the hotel,” he added.

“Our family was then taken to Ganobhaban in a minibus to meet the prime minister. Several administrative officials accompanied us. When we reached the prime minister’s residence, there were some other families there.”

“The prime minister gave us two minutes of her time. I saw on TV the photos and videos of my mother with the prime minister,” Abu Hossen continued. 

He said he saw his mother crying loudly in the video.

“The sound of someone else crying was added to my mother’s crying. My younger sister saw this and said, ‘Look how devilish they are. They added the sound of someone else weeping to our mother’s,'” Abu Hossen said. 

“I told the prime minister that I wanted justice for my brother’s murder. The prime minister said that she would investigate and provide justice. Then we said the people who killed Abu Sayeed can be clearly seen in the videos. The Prime Minister cried with my mother. But those were not real tears, those were just eyewash,” he added.

Abu Hossen also claimed his brother was buried in a hurry.

“The night the body of my brother was brought home from Rangpur University, local AL men came and said it had to be buried by night. The UNO said it had to be buried by 8am in the morning at the latest,” he said.

“We then said, ‘Was our brother a terrorist? Why should he be buried in secrecy? He has many friends and relatives who will come, and then the funeral prayer will be held.'”

Around 2:30pm on 16 July, Abu Sayeed, 25, a key coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement at Begum Rokeya University, was shot by police.

Multiple video footages of the incident showed the police shooting Abu Sayeed at close range on the road in front of Begum Rokeya University. 

Holding a cricket stump in one hand, Abu Sayeed extended both hands and exposed his chest. 

He collapsed within moments.