'Mother, I am going to war'

Shahnaz Begum's heart trembled with fear when her son, Shrabon, told her he was going to war.

It was the morning of 5 August, the day the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement had planned their "March to Dhaka" programme demanding the ouster of the Awami League government.

Shrabon intended to join the march.

Seeing his mother's fear, Shrabon then reassured her with a lie, saying, "I'm just going to the canteen. Nowhere else."

It was the last time Shahnaz Begum would hear from her son in person.

Shrabon was killed when a bullet struck him in the head while participating in the March to Dhaka programme in Savar.

"I last spoke to Shrabon over the phone around 1:30pm that day. He told me he was in the Dairy Gate area, and I asked him to come home for lunch," Shahnaz said.

But he never returned home, she added, sobbing.

Shahnaz Begum. Photo: TBS

Md Shrabon Gazi, 20, was the son of Mannan Gazi and Shahnaz Begum from Gerua village in Savar, near Jahangirnagar University. He was the elder sibling of a sister.

He was studying software engineering at Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management & Technology in Malaysia. He returned to the country on 16 July.

In 2022, he graduated from Savar Laboratory College with a GPA of 4.58 in his HSC exams. In February of this year, his family sent him to Malaysia for higher education.

Students who participated in the protests in Savar said Srabon was at the forefront of the march of students who started from Jahangirnagar University. After the march reached Savar, suddenly a bullet hit Shrabon in the head and he instantly fell on the ground.

He was immediately taken to Ashulia's Public Health Society Medical College where the doctor on duty declared him dead.

"When the police began firing, their position was quite far from us. We moved towards Savar's New Market, staying a bit behind the area where the gunfire was concentrated," Biplob Hossain, a 49th batch student of the Chemistry Department at Jahangirnagar University, told TBS.

"I was staying on the opposite side of the road from the Swaranika residential area, near Shimultala. Suddenly, there was a shout from the opposite direction that someone had been shot. It was Srabon," he added.

Shrabon's father, Mannan Gazi, had worked in the garment sector for many years before leaving in 2016 to become a Breeding Assistant at Savar's Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm. Since then, the family has been living in the residential quarters of the dairy farm.

"We hoped that after completing his studies in software engineering, he would find a good job abroad or return to the country and contribute positively to the private sector," Mannan said.

"Shrabon returned to the country only 20 days before the incident. His semester hadn't started yet. But as the movement escalated and lives were lost one after another, he couldn't stay at home. In the end, he was killed as well," he added.

"After 2pm on 5 August, a boy called me and told me that Shrabon had been shot in the head. I immediately understood what had happened," Mannan Gazi said, bursting into tears.

Following Shrabon's death, he was buried in the local cemetery of the Central Cattle Breeding and Dairy Farm area on the same day.

His death has cast a shadow of grief over the entire area. Locals want for a monument to be built to keep the memory of the by alive.