Victims recall those nightmarish days

The brutal attacks on innocent students by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists and policemen were unprecedented and horrifying, leaving the victims of the July Revolution haunted by the trauma to this day.
Unfortunately, many of the attackers and offenders are still reigning in their respective areas, which may lead to recurrence of such attacks.

Several students, who actively took part in anti-discrimination movement in July, made the observations at an online discussion programme on Saturday.
The Forum for Bangladesh Studies (FBS), a platform of rights activists, organised a webinar titled "In the face of death: the experiences of anti-discrimination student agitators".
Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan, a professor of International Islamic University in Malaysia, delivered the concluding address while Journalist Monir Haider moderated the discussion.
Non-resident Bangladeshi writer Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb delivered opening speech.
Students from different education institutions joined the webinar. Mumtaz Soma of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR), Fahim Shahriar and Samia Masud Mom of Dhaka University (DU), Hafez Kamrul Hasan Khan of Madinatul Uloom Madrasa, Dhaka's Kadmatoli, Taufiq Ahmed of Bogura's Govt Azizul Haque College, Mohammad Sayem Khan of East West University and Abdul Aziz of Jahangirnagar University were among them.
Monir Haider said most of the tertiary level education students were kids or teenage when the Sheikh Hasina-led government came to the throne.
"We thought you don't know the actual history of the country as you have come to know that -- through your syllabus-only one person created the nation brought independence," he said.
He also apologised on behalf of elder Bangladeshis to the young students who actively joined the movement for the sake of country despite their life in danger.
Fahim Shahriar said youths representing most of his generation learnt the country's actual history through different sources thanks to the development information technology.
He also said the movement that led to oust Sheikh Hasina was not a merely an eventual development, rather it was an outburst of accumulated grievances of people from all strata of lives for many days.
"Although Awami League continuously presented the party as the all-in-one, after coming of age we could understand the reality through discussion and analysis within ourselves," he said, adding that however the movement primarily aimed at quota reform.
Sharing his experience of the movement, he said BCL leaders and activists started taking ruthless stances since July 16.
"The BCL invited urchins and vagabonds to attack general students specially females," he said.
Though started from Dhaka, the movement soon reached every nooks and corner of the country.
A batch mate of Martyred Abu Sayeed at (BRUR), Mumtaz Soma said BCL leaders tried to harass Abu Sayeed by different means as he was dedicatedly organising the movement several days before his brutal killing on July 16.
"I would never forget the horrifying experiences we gathered during the movement," she said.
"Some students were shot at foreheads or different parts of upper limb, they were flooded with blood," she said.
Mahmudul Hasan said the FBS comprising academia, journalists and rights activists was launched two years ago to raise voice against rights violation, fascism and corruption in Bangladesh.
Terming the students' role incomparable he said, "You have done an excellent job freeing the country again which we couldn't dream of in the wake of fascism."
"We don't know how much you will be rewarded in materialistic terms, as human beings, even we also lack the capacity to recognise your contribution," he said.
He also underscored the need for mobilising proper treatment and financial support for the victims from government and proper punishment of the perpetrators.
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