July 30, 2024
DHAKA – It was around 5:30pm on July 18. Khalid Hasan, a first-year student of Ideal College in Dhanmondi, was heading back to his Amligola home in Lalbagh after offering Asr prayers at the Azimpur Government Staff Quarter mosque.
As he took a few steps, the 16-year-old saw a group of protesters rushing inside the colony and scatter.
Puzzled, Khalid stood there for a few moments in his attempt to figure out what was going on.
But police personnel appeared out of nowhere and started firing indiscriminately.
Khalid along with three to four others was shot. Khalid died instantly. His body had at least 70 shotgun pellet wounds in the tummy and chest.
“The police could have shot my son in the leg. If they did so, he would have lived, even as a cripple. My son was intentionally killed by police,” Kamrul Hasan told The Daily Star as tears rolled down his cheeks.
He said as the situation, stemming from the quota protest, was deteriorating, he had asked his son not to go outside.
Khalid would only go out for prayers, he said.
“My son was a threat to no one. He was not involved in the protest. The police unjustly shot my innocent son,” said Kamrul, a teacher at a madrasa in Lalbagh.
A witness, who also suffered shotgun pellet injuries close to his eye, said, “Everything happened so fast that we could not fathom what was going on. We were getting out of the colony when the protesters ran inside. Before we could understand anything, a policeman pointed his gun at us and fired.”
Some people later took Khalid and him to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, he said, wishing anonymity fearing reprisal.
Hearing the news, Kamrul went to the DMCH. “I saw my son lying on a bed and blood oozing out of his mouth and nose. My innocent son was dead.”
The family’s ordeal didn’t end there. He said they faced immense difficulties in getting Khalid’s body from the hospital morgue.
“At 2:30am on July 20, I went to the Lalbagh Police Station for clearance, without which the hospital authorities would not release the body. The police questioned me and told me to come back at 9:00am,” Kamrul told The Daily Star.
“I went again but they did not cooperate. Two days later, they finally gave the clearance, and I received my son’s body. During this time, I visited the police station four to five times a day.”
Around 4:30pm on July 21, Kamrul received his son’s body. Khalid was buried at their family graveyard in Bhadashon village in Faridpur’s Bhanga.
Kamrul said, “We had a hope that Khalid [his eldest son] would become a lawyer. Our family is poor, and he wanted to contribute tot he family. Who will I ask for justice now?”
Khalid’s mother gave to this correspondent just one line: “They did not let my son live.”