Staff Correspondent

Fatiha Khatun, wife of Shahjahan, is five months pregnant. Grief-stricken Fatiha said, "We got married four years back. Since then we had been living at a rented house in the Kamrangichar area, the outskirts of the capital. He was the only breadwinner of our family."

"On that day (July 16) he left the house for the shop. Being informed by TV that clashes were taking place in the New Market area, I phoned him several times. When I phoned him around 3 pm, he assured me that he was fine and told me not to get panicked... He also told me that he was coming back home."

"I became a widow in this age...what will happen to my unborn baby. He/she will not be able to see the face of his/her father. How will I raise my child? I want exemplary punishment for those who had killed my husband," grief-stricken Fatiha cried while expressing her mental state.

Ayesha Khatun said she, along with her ailing husband Mohsin Mia and three sons -- Shaon, Shaomin, and Shahjahan -- came to the capital city of Dhaka with a hope of living a better life as their ancestral homestead, located at Haziour union under Daulatkhan upazila, was devoured by the Meghna river. But her husband died after a few days when they moved to Dhaka.

Since then, they have been living in the Kamrangichar area. Finding no way, Ayesha engaged her three sons in jobs. Ayesha then married Iman Ali, a resident of Louhajong in the Munshiganj district.

"My son was not involved in politics. He used to sell doormats on the footpath in the city's New Market area, but they killed my son. Why did they kill my son? I want justice for my son."

Ayesha Begum, mother of martyr Shahjahan Ali, expressed her grief while talking to BSS in the Chand Mosjid area under Kamrangichar here a few days back.

"I want my son back... He went out of the house saying that he was going to shop. But we later found that my son was kept at Dhaka Medical College Hospital as he was killed in police firing," said Ayesha.

"In the evening, a student of Dhaka University phoned me and said that my son was shot by police...He was critically injured. He was taken to Popular Hospital," she added.

"But, when I went there, I came to know that my son was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital... I went there and found my son as a dead body."

"I had to struggle a lot while raising my son. We married him off...But they killed my son... how is this possible!!"

On July 16, when vendor Shahjahan, 25, was selling products near Balaka Cinema Hall in the New Market area, he was shot dead around 4:30 pm.

Since the beginning of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, he was involved with the movement apart from doing business.

According to family members, Shahjahan was shot dead in the New Market area. When students were taking him to the hospital, he died on the way to the hospital.

"Shahjahan used to sell various types of products on the footpath near Dhaka College... Who knew that 16th July would be the last day of his life?

Demanding martyr status for Shahjahan, Iman Ali said, "My son sacrificed his life for the cause of the country....I want exemplary punishment for those who killed my son."

Saon, brother of the deceased, said, "I have been running the footpath shop since my younger brother was shot dead by police... Our father sometimes tries to help me. My brother has a loan amounting to Tk 3 lakh....We are worried about repaying the money. I would like to request everybody to pray for the eternal peace of my brother's departed soul."

On July 17, Ayesha Begum filed a murder case with the New Market police station.