Death of constable in Fakirapool: 'I just want to go to my father', 7yr old Tanha keeps saying
Tanha's father, police constable Atiur Rahman Parvez (32), died today while he was on duty in the Nayapaltan area – the ground for BNP's rally and the party's subsequent clashes with law enforcers
Just this morning, seven-year-old Tanha's father had called her mother and asked that his daughter be fed lunch properly.
That was the last message he had for her.
Tanha, now wrapped in her mother's embrace, stands before the emergency ward of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
"Please let me go see my father. I just want to go see my father," she says between sobs.
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Tanha's father, police constable Atiur Rahman Parvez (32), died today while he was on duty in the Nayapaltan area – the ground for BNP's rally and the party's subsequent clashes with law enforcers.
As Tanha's wailing grows louder, her mother, Ruma Akhter, looks almost lost; listless.
"I can't imagine he would leave me," Ruma says.
"How could they kill him? He would never even hurt a fly. Why did he leave me all alone?"
Ruma had last spoken to her husband at 11:45am this morning.
"He always said he couldn't live without us. At the end of his duty, he would always rush home to be with us," Ruma says.
But Parvez would never be coming home again.
"How can he be alone without us now?" Ruma says.
Ruma says Parvez told her that he was in Paltan the last time they spoke.
"He said the environment was good. He asked me to look after Tanha and feed her. I didn't speak to him after."
Parvez, who hails from Manikganj's Daulatpur, lived in Dhaka's Shahjadpur with his wife and only child, Tanha.
He worked in the counter-terrorism unit of the police.
His father, Mohammad Nurul Ali Mollah, was a freedom fighter.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan met with Ruma and Tanha at the hospital and said there will be swift justice over Parvez's death.
Parvez was brought to the hospital earlier today with critical injuries.
"Doctors declared the police official dead after he was brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition around 4:30pm," said Dr Mohammad Alauddin, the residential surgeon of the DMC emergency department.
"He had severe head injuries. We confirmed his death after conducting an ECG," he added.
A young man named Raihan Rabdi, who brought him to the hospital, said, "When the police were attacked at Fakirapool intersection, I entered a building with four policemen, including the constable.
"The constable suddenly left the building. Then a group attacked him. He was hit in the head. I brought him to the hospital from there with the help of another policeman."
