GOPALGANJ, May 16, 2025 (BSS) – Arafat’s mother used to dream that her only son would join the Bangladesh Army and serve the nation once he completes his studies, making his parents' faces shine. But the bud of her dream fell prematurely before it could blossom into a flower.

The dream ended in tragedy as 14-year-old Arafat was killed in front of Ashulia Police Station on the outskirts of the capital city Dhaka during the anti-discrimination student movement on August 5, 2024. His mother, Maya Begum, now lives with an endless void, clutching her son’s photos and memories.

The dream that Arafat would one day wear the military uniform and make his parents proud was shattered by bullets fired by the frantic police force unleashed by the fascist government during the historic March to Dhaka campaign that helped end a 16-year-long fascist regime.

Arafat, the only son of rickshaw-puller Swapan Munshi and garment worker Maya Begum of Muksudpur upazila of the district, lived in a rented house with his parents at Namabazar in Ashulia. He was an eighth-grade student at Bird School and College.

His mother, Maya Begum, burst into tears when this correspondent approached her for comments about her martyred son at their village home here on April 20.

Recounting the memory in the morning on August 5, she tearfully said, “I didn't turn on the light that morning to help him sleep longer as I feared that he would join the protest. I was sleeping beside him too.”

Around 9 am, Arafat woke up and asked his mother why she didn’t wake him up from sleep.

“Maa, it’s not the time to be scared. Even girls are out protesting now. How can a boy like me sit at home? It’s our country. We have to fight to survive. Maa, we are citizens of this country, we have rights and responsibilities. If we don't fight for the country, will the sons of other countries come and save the country?” wailing Maya recalled as her son told her after waking up from sleep.

Begging him to stay, Maya tried to convince him with love and promises of good food. She cooked his favorite dish -- Tilapia fish with spinach -- and lovingly fed him. At that time, Arafat promised he wouldn't go out.

“Bajan (Baba), you are my only child. You don't need to join the movement. If something happens to you, with whom will I live? Who will call me 'Maa'? Whom will I call 'Bajan' and feed? Bajan, you are still young, grow up first,” she recalled her efforts to stop her son from joining the protest.

“Later, I made a cup of tea and shared it with,” Maya recalled.

Around 12.30pm, Maya remembered that she called Arafat for lunch when he begged her in a sweet voice, saying “Maa, will you feed me, please? You are my good mother”.

“At that time he kissed on my forehead when I fed him,” she recounted.

After having lunch, Maya recalled her son took a rest for a while and watched videos on his phone. In the meantime, the network went down.

Arafat, however, made several efforts to go outside. But he couldn’t go ignoring his mother’s plea.

Finally, he insisted on going outside under the pretense of throwing out trash when his mother reluctantly agreed and asked him to return by 1pm.

As he left, he smiled mischievously at his mother and said, “Maa, today I am going to fight, not to play”.

“I told him, why are you laughing? I am scared about you, don't laugh like this,” Maya recalled as she told her son and said at that time Arafat playfully filmed a video of her.

“When he was leaving, he put his face in the gap in the door and told me, “Maa, today you will see, I'll return after freeing the country”,” she recalled her final conversation with her son. Tragically, he never came back.

Even his classmates warned him not to go outside, saying police were firing bullets. But Arafat was determined. He was marching forward, shouting slogans ‘since we have given blood, we will give more.

When military vehicles arrived, Arafat climbed onto one, leading chants. It was then that he was shot by police.

“Even though all of his friends came back, my son never came back. I called him many times but couldn't bring him back,” Maya wailed.

Referring eyewitnesses, she said Arafat was marching forward, shouting slogans with a stick in his hand. When military vehicles arrived, Arafat climbed onto one, leading chants. At that time he was shot on his chest by police from the front.

Maya said she talked to her son for the last time over the phone around 3 pm.

“There were many noises coming from the surroundings. I asked him where he was and whether he would eat rice,” she said, adding that at time, Arafat replied, “Maa, I have eaten. You take food, don't worry. I am fine. Nothing happened to me. I will come home by 6 pm”.

Maya said Arafat might have been shot just after talking with her.

Later, when she called Arafat around 5.45 pm again, a stranger named Sohel answered the call and asked her, “Are you Arafat’s mother? . . . Arafat has been shot dead by police”.

Maya collapsed on hearing the news. The stranger youth took her to Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital, but security personnel didn’t allow her to enter the hospital.

“They brought my son’s bloodied body wrapped in cloth. I recognized him just by seeing his feet,” Maya lamented.

She said when she informed the youths that she wanted to bring Arafat’s body to their village home here; they donated money and helped arrange a pickup truck to send Arafat’s body here.

Arafat was laid to eternal rest the next day at the family graveyard in Maharajpur Union’s Choto Bonogram village here.

“Despite acute poverty, we never let my son feel it. I had so many dreams centering him. But he’s gone, ruining all my dreams,” Maya said tearfully.

Seeking justice for killing her son, she said, “I want to see the killers punished before I die. May Allah never let any parent lose their children like me.”

Arafat has been officially recognized as a ‘July Martyr’, listed as number 75 in the government’s gazette.

Arafat’s family has so far received Taka 2 lakh from the district administration, Taka 2 lakh from Jamaat-e-Islami and Taka 1 lakh from the As-Sunnah Foundation as financial assistance.