Daughter demands death penalty for father's killers

Battery-powered rickshaw puller Junayed Bhuiyan was killed in police firing on August 4, 2024, just a day before fascist Sheikh Hasina fled the country in the face of an indomitable student uprising, reports BSS.

Before leaving home to join the protest march of the anti-discrimination student-public movement, he told his wife that almighty Allah would see you when I embraced martyrdom.

Junayed, a resident of Hasnabad Purbopara village in Raipura upazila of Narsingdi, grew up in Gulshan and Mirpur-10 areas of the capital city.

He lived in a rented house in Mirpur-10, Jutpatti Jalladkhana area with his wife Hafsa Akhter, 21, and four-year-old daughter Mariyam.

On August 4, at 12;00 noon, a clash between the police and Awami League activists and the students-public was going on at the Mirpur-10 roundabout. Junaid was also present there.

At one point, his friends left the area. But Junayed stayed there. At around 2 pm, he was shot in the head by the police.

The students and mass people tried to take him to various hospitals in the area, but it was not possible to get him admitted anywhere.

Later, he was taken to the National Institute of Neuro Sciences and Hospital, where his condition was critical and he was kept in the ICU and died around 12 midnight after the bullet was removed from his head.

The next day, August 5, he was buried in the family graveyard in the village after the Zuhr prayers.

His father Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan (55) said Junayed was not involved in any political party.

"Initially, he did not go to the anti-discrimination student-public movement much. But when the students were shot, he started joining the movement regularly. On July 25, 2024, he was shot in the leg while going to the movement," he said.

"Then he went to the hospital to have the bullet removed and returned home. We all forbade him from going to the anti-discrimination student-public movement again, but he didn't listen to us," he said.

His wife Hafsa Akter said t she repeatedly forbade her husband Junayed from going to the movement.

"I said you have been shot in the leg, don't go again. What will happen to us?" she said.

"My husband said if the students can protest, why should I sit at home? The police are shooting my brothers, I cannot sit at home. I will go to the movement, if necessary, I will be martyred. If I die, almighty Allah will look after you all," she said, quoting Junayed.