Dreams shattered, laughter wiped out

Prity used to tell her father to hold tight just for a few days as she was supposed to join a private firm on 1 April.

"Good days are just ahead of us. My brother and I are going to earn enough soon. Then you will not have to struggle anymore to make the ends meet," the college-girl would tell her distressed family often.     

But the dreams shattered as Samia Afran Jamal Prity was shot dead on a busy street in the capital's Shahjahanpur on Thursday night. Police said she got shot as happened to be at the scene of the assassination of a local political leader.

Prity's father Jamal Uddin said he came to Dhaka in 2011 and joined a small job subsequently. The family has been through financial hardship but he never gave up hope.

"I thought the fruits of the suffering will eventually be sweet," in a choked voice, Jamal Uddin told The Business Standard Saturday at their rented apartment in Dhaka's Shantibagh.

He said Prity slowly began to realise the financial constraints as she grew up. Despite being a college student with her Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) just months away, she opted for the job alongside the study.

"Her words and hope for a better future would give me some sort of peace. I dreamed my children might end my hardship one day. And I have been waiting for my dreams to come true for so long. But our daughter gave up even after reaching too close to her goal," cried the father.

"The only hope and laughter we had even amid the distress left us too," Jamal Uddin added.

Slain college-girl Samia Afran Jamal Prity's reading table

He said Prity had been doing a computer training course for several months. The father also promised his daughter that he would buy her a laptop so that she can do freelancing from home.

For the last four days, Prity was at her friend's residence in Khilgaon area. From there, she was returning home on Thursday evening.

But her mother phoned her to tell her not to return because there was a guest in the house and not enough room to sleep.

Prity got shot when she was going back to the house of the friend, who was with her at the time.

The shooting also left local Awami League leader Jahidul Islam Tipu dead and his driver wounded. Subsequently, Tipu's wife filed a case.     

But Prity's family has not yet filed any case till Saturday. "Being just ordinary people, we do not want to get tangled up by a legal fight.

Besides, a case has already been filed over the same incident," said Jamal Uddin.

"Our daughter is no more, and I am not desperate for justice. I just want to live with her memories," Jamal Uddin told TBS.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal Saturday said those involved in the murder will be brought to justice and no offender will be spared.

"Criminals will be brought to justice, no matter who they are," he said.

While replying to a query, the minister said, "We do not want to comment on political killings right now. We hope to be able to unravel the mystery of this murder very soon."