BSS:

“I don’t know if I’ll see you again. Life and death are in the hands of Almighty Allah. Please, take care of our daughter.” These were the last words of Shohanur Rahman Ranju to his wife, Mousumi Khatun, 32, before leaving home to join the anti-discrimination student movement.

Ranju, a resident of Masumpur Dakhhinpara in Sirajganj town was “shot dead by Awami League and Jubo League activists” in front of Mahbub Shopping Complex on Sirajganj SS Road on August 4 in 2024 during the massive student-people uprising.

Ranju’s panic stricken wife Mousumi burst into tears, when this correspondent approached for comments about her martyred husband at her home in the town.

“The day before the fatal incident, I told him not to join the movement, saying police were shooting people dead, even ordinary civilians are not spared,” Mousumi wailed saying that at that time her husband replied, “Police shooting has been stopped. Today we’ll liberate the country or I’ll give my life”.

Before stepping out of the house to join the movement, Ranju asked his wife to take care of their two-year-old only daughter Sumaiya Khan.

But the irony of fate was that, just one day before the nation celebrated the victory of ousting the nearly 16-year fascist regime, Ranju had embraced martyrdom on that day (August 4).

His family comprised of his wife and only daughter. Despite losing both his parents- Md Majed Khan and Shamsunnahar- many years back, Ranju was known for his gentle demeanor and commitment to helping others.

He was second among their seven siblings including five brothers and two sisters.

Ranju once ran a dental clinic in Dhaka before opening “Khan Dental” in Sirajganj New Market, where physicians from different hospitals used to provide health services to the people.

Describing the fatal incident, his wife Mousumi said, Ranju joined a mass procession under the anti-discrimination student movement at around 10:00am on SS Road in Sirajganj on August 4, 2024.

“By 11:00am, when the procession reached in front of Mahbub Shopping Complex, Awami League and Jubo League activists opened fire at the demonstrators. A bullet hit in the right eye of Ranju and exited through the back of his head,” Mousumi said tearfully.

She added that, when people sent him to the hospital, doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Ranju, also the joint secretary of the Sirajganj municipality unit of Jubo Dal, was laid to eternal rest at Kandapara graveyard Sirajganj municipality on August 6. Earlier, an autopsy was performed at Shaheed Monsur Ali Medical College Hospital.

Two-year-old Sumaiya is too little to understand that her father will never return. Every day, she asks her mother about her father’s whereabouts.

“Maa, where is my Papa? When will he come back?” Mousumi is now tired of giving answers to her small daughter’s repeated questions.

She now tries to console her daughter by showing her husband’s pictures on the mobile phone.

But adamant to hug her father, Sumaiya still cries clutching her father’s shirts and other clothes, Mousumi said.

Noting that Ranju’s last words of taking care of their daughter still haunts her, weeping Mousumi said, “It’s been nine months now since my husband embraced martyrdom. I feel like a living corpse. The hardest part is when our daughter clutches her father’s shirt and cries for him.”

“How could I tell her that her father will never return? She could never see him and call him ‘Baba’ or Papa. He will never come home and lift her into his arms anymore,” she added tearfully.

Mousumi has to invent new words of reassurances to console, feed and put her daughter to sleep every day. “I hide my broken heart behind those condolences,” she said in a sobbing tone.

Sumaiya saw her father on a bier draped in the national flag for the last time. Since then, Mousumi said, Sumaiya began asking, “Where is Papa?”

Seeking justice for her husband’s killing, Mousumi said, “My husband didn’t do anything wrong, so why did they kill him? Who will take responsibility of this killing?”

Neighbor Baby Khatun said, Ranju was the only breadwinner of his family. His death left his family distraught.

“As far as I know, Mousumi passed HSC.   If she is given a job, she would be able to overcome financial hardship,” Baby added.