KHULNA, Sept 19, 2024 (BSS) - Ten-grader Mahfuzur Rahman Mahfuz, 17, wanted to be an army officer to protect Bangladesh and its people but a bullet shattered his dream as he was killed in police firing in the capital during the student-mass upsurge on July 19.

Mahfuz, a student of class 10 of Alhaz Abbas Uddin High School in Dhaka, was shot dead on a street of Mirpur-10 in Dhaka during the nationwide mass movement that eventually ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ending her 15 year's autocratic rule.

Mahfuz's father Abdul Mannan Howlader, a small trader, is hailed from Baintala village under Morelganj upazila of Bagerhat district.
 
Talking to BSS on Tuesday, Mannan said he had been living along with his wife and his only son Mahfuz in a rented house in the Mirpur-10 area in Dhaka since 2010 after the marriage of his three daughters.
 
He had a job in a local shop there to maintain his family, especially for the expenses of the study of his only son Mahfuz.
 
"During the last dinner on July 18, Mahfuz expressed his resentment with grief and sorrow to his parents that the police shot dead Abu Syed like a bird. It hurt me and I must go to the anti-discrimination student-mass movement tomorrow," Mannan said.

"I would stay safe. Why do you think so much?," he quoted her son's last words as saying with a grieved voice.

The next day was Friday and Mahfuz really joined the anti-discrimination movement. He was shot dead on the spot by law enforcers during the movement after Jumma prayer.
 
Mannan said Mahfuz's body was found in the morgue of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital on July 20. The bullet pierced him below his ear.
 
As the hospital authorities informed that it would take at least 7 days to do the post-mortem, he brought his dead son's body to their village home without post-mortem.

Mahfuz was buried in the family graveyard after holding his namaz-e-janaja, his father said with teary eyes.
 
Mannan said he even had to flee his village to avoid police arrest after burial of his only son.
 
"I regularly joined the anti-discrimination student-mass movement to minimize my grief and sadness after the immature death of my only son," he said.
 
"When I saw any procession of the anti-discrimination student mass movement, I consoled myself seeing thousands of students on the streets in the movement," he added.

Mannan said: "I feel proud of my son because Mahfuz got the opportunity to sacrifice his life for the country". But he said, "I have nothing left taking care of me".
 
"I want justice for my son's brutal killing. That's enough for me," he continued.