The killings at Enayetpur still haunt those who survived

4 August, 2024, is a day Rehena Parvin would rather forget. But she cannot.

"A terrible fire was raging on the ground floor of the police station. Five of us were trapped in the barracks on the second floor. At one point, flames started coming through the windows. The smoke was so thick that we could barely breathe. I felt as if I was watching my own death," she recalled.

Rehena was serving at Enayetpur Police Station in Sirajganj during the July-August uprising. She survived that day after army personnel arrived in the evening and rescued the officers trapped inside.

Fifteen of her colleagues were not so fortunate.

"Allah saved us. We survived by sheer luck. But 15 of my colleagues could not escape. Later, I heard they had been beaten to death," she said.

More than a year later, Rehena, now posted at a police station under the Gazipur Metropolitan Police, still carries the memory of that day with her.

"Whenever I think about the deaths of my colleagues, it feels like something inside me is crying out," she said.

A station surrounded

Enayetpur Police Station sits about 30 kilometres from Sirajganj town, near the edge of Chauhali upazila. Its jurisdiction covers parts of Belkuchi, Shahjadpur and Chauhali.
On 4 August, the station came under repeated attacks by protesters.

At first, the police officers inside did not realise how bad things would become. A procession arrived, followed by a barrage of bricks and stones.

"Stones were falling like rain," said Sub-Inspector Abdul Motaleb, who was also inside the station that day. The situation quickly spiralled out of control. The police officers tried to communicate with the protesters through a loudspeaker. They appealed for the attacks to stop and even offered to surrender.

It made no difference.

As the attackers entered the station, the officers scattered in an attempt to save themselves. Some ran to the roof, some to neighbouring houses, while others hid in toilets, behind buildings or in nearby vegetation.

Motaleb hid in a toilet in the quarters on the third floor.

"There were around 30 of us. Everyone was hiding wherever they could," he said. He repeatedly called the police superintendent.

"He kept telling me, 'I am sending the army.' But the army arrived much later, after Asr prayers and just before Maghrib. By then, we had already lost 15 colleagues."
The army eventually rescued 15 injured police officers and took them to Khwaja Yunus Ali Medical College Hospital. Motaleb said the attackers had used a strong gas that left many officers unable to see properly.

"Then our weapons were taken away. Those who had hidden around the station were found and beaten to death."

He paused when recalling the events.

"Even now, when I talk about that day, I cannot think properly. I was on the third floor, which is why I survived. If I had been on the second floor, perhaps I would not have survived either."

One female police officer survived after identifying herself as pregnant, Motaleb recalled.

The fear did not end when the attack did

For residents living around the station, the violence was just as terrifying.

Mst Amena Khatun lives with her husband and children right beside the station's boundary wall. She remembers the sound of gunfire and the chaos continuing well into the afternoon.

Then several police officers came running from behind the station.

"They came into our house asking for shelter. Some of them ran to the back and hid inside our concrete bathroom," she said.

The attackers followed.

"They came inside looking for the police. The situation was so frightening that we shut all the doors and sat quietly inside."

The attackers even closed the family's gate from outside.

It was only in the evening, when a neighbour opened the gate, that Amena realised what had happened.

"The police officers who had hidden in the bathroom had been beaten to death. Later, I saw bloodstains all over our courtyard."

The incident has left a lasting mark on her family.

"Even now, if there is a sudden noise in the evening, my children wake up screaming. We are still afraid." For Manjuara Begum, who lives next to the station, the memories have also taken a physical toll. She said attackers wanted to set fire to her house after learning that police officers had taken shelter there. "We were all sitting silently inside because we were terrified. When we finally came out, there was blood everywhere in the courtyard. The blood was cleaned later, but the memory remains."

Manjuara said she had to undergo a cardiac procedure six months after the incident. "The trauma affected me badly. Even now, I feel scared when I go into the courtyard after evening."

Her seven-year-old granddaughter Tanzila and five-and-a-half-year-old Isha Moni still wake up screaming in the middle of the night, she said.

"The fear of that day seems to have stayed with the children too."

'I have never seen so many people'

Local residents remember the sheer number of people involved in the attack. Several youths living in the area said the police station was attacked repeatedly from the morning. By afternoon, they began seeing bodies lying in different places.

One body was found in front of a mosque. Another was reportedly hung from a banyan tree in the nearby market. Many of the attackers had cloth wrapped around their faces and red bands around their heads. Almost all carried sticks, the residents said.

Bablu Pramanik, Manjuara's husband, said his family managed to save two police officers.

"I gave them my lungis to wear instead of their uniforms and kept them inside the house. When the attackers asked who they were, I told them they were our relatives," he said.

The two officers managed to escape later that night.

"Others were begging for their lives, but they were not spared," Bablu said.

Swapan Molla, who has been selling sugarcane in front of the station's main gate for nearly a decade, said the scale of the crowd was unlike anything he had seen before.

"Thousands of people came to attack the station. It was difficult to recognise anyone among them," he said.

"I have never seen such a huge crowd in this area in my life. Even now, people become frightened when they remember that day."

A claim of pregnancy saved a constable

Fifty-nine police officers were deployed at Enayetpur Police Station on the day of the attack, including six women.

Three of the six female officers were on maternity leave.

Among those on duty was Constable Rasheda Akter, who was reportedly unwell.

When attackers tried to assault her, police station clerk Rabiul Islam told them she was pregnant.

The claim worked.

According to Enayetpur Police Station Officer-in-Charge Md Zahid Hossain, the attackers left Rasheda unharmed.

Rabiul, however, was not spared. He was beaten to death, the OC said.

The case remains under investigation

The violence also resulted in the looting of 18 rifles, pistols and shotguns from the station.

Police and local sources say 15 police officers, including the officer-in-charge, were killed in the attack.

Thirteen bodies were recovered from the station and surrounding areas that day. Two more victims died later while undergoing treatment in hospital.

One of the bodies was reportedly hung from a banyan tree in a market beside the station.

Swapan Molla and several police officers said the attack intensified after news spread that three protesters had been killed earlier that day.

Six firearms and most of the ammunition looted during the attack have yet to be recovered, according to police records.

Police filed a murder case on August 26, 22 days after the incident.

Sub-Inspector Abdul Malek filed the case, naming four local Awami League leaders and between 5,000 and 6,000 unidentified people as accused.

The prime accused, Ahmed Mostofa Khan Bachchu, then president of the Enayetpur Thana Awami League, later died in prison.

Former MP and minister Abdul Latif Biswas and several other Awami League leaders were also arrested in connection with the case and spent extended periods in jail.

Four cases have been filed over the killings during the July-August uprising in Enayetpur. One concerns the deaths of the police officers, while the other three relate to the deaths of three protesters.

Sub-Inspector Farid Uddin is investigating the police murder case.

"We have been reviewing video footage of the incident for the past two years," he said when asked about the progress of the investigation. "Many of the accused are being verified and scrutinised. A final decision will be taken based on instructions from the higher authorities."

Sirajganj Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Operations) Hafizur Rahman confirmed that the case remains under investigation.

"There is nothing else I can say at this stage," he said.

Asked when the investigation would be completed, he declined to comment.

Sirajganj District Police Superintendent Md Saiful Islam Santu referred questions about the investigation to Hafizur Rahman.

But for those who survived that day, the investigation is only one part of the story.

For Rehena, Motaleb and the residents who lived through the violence, 4 August is not simply a date in a case file.

It is the memory of a station engulfed in smoke, colleagues running for their lives, bodies lying in the streets and a fear that, more than a year later, has yet to fully disappear.