Martyred school student Shahriar Khan Anas and his tragic letter to his mother. Photo: Collected

DHAKA, May 25, 2025 (BSS) - International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam today read out a tragic letter, written by July martyred school student Shahriar Khan Anas to his mother, before the tribunal.

The chief prosecutor read out the letter from the formal charges filed with the tribunal for the killing of six people including Anas in city’s Chankharpool area during the uprising on August 5 last year.

There was a pin drop silence in the room of the three-member tribunal led by Justice Md Golam Murtoza Majumder at that time.

Anas, a class ten student of a school, was reportedly shot dead by police along with five others in the city’s Chankharpool area just few hours before the fall of the Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5 last year. Before coming out from his house to join an anti-government procession, Anas wrote the letter to his mother. 

In the letter Anas wrote to his mother that “Mother (Ma) I am going to join the procession, I could not confine myself in the house. Sorry father (Abbajan), going out from home defying your restriction, failing to sit idle as a selfish. Our brothers have been struggling fastening shrouds round their heads for the cause of our future generations and sacrificing their lives fearlessly. If an autistic youth, a seven-year kid and a disabled man can join the movement, then why I will be seating idle?”.   

He also wrote, “One day we have to die, so that the death by bullets like a hero is better than seating idle.’ A man who sacrifices for others is the real man. If I failed to come back, don’t be worried, be proud of me, want forgiveness for each of the mistakes-Anas”. 

The ICT today accepted the formal charge of the killing of six people including Anas in city’s Chankharpool area on August 5 and fixed June 3 for next hearing on the issue.

Those who were killed in police firing at Chankharpool on that day are Shahriar Khan Anas, Sheikh Mahadi Hassan Junaid, Md Yakub, Md Rakib Hawlader, Md Ismail haque and Manik Miah. 

A total of eight police officials including the then commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Md Habibur Rahman have been accused of the killing. Of the accused, Inspector Arshad, constable Md Sujon, constable Imaz Hossain Imon and constable Nasirul Islam, have been arrested so far.