Nasima Akter. Photo : Collected

By Borun Kumar Das
 
DHAKA, May 20, 2025 (BSS) – It was Friday, July 19, 2024. From early morning, clashes broke out between police and anti-discrimination student movement protesters around the Nilkhet, Dhaka College, and Science Lab intersections in the capital. Tear gas engulfed the streets and even reached nearby homes, leaving residents suffocated.

The confrontation lasted until 5pm, with continuous chasing and counter chasing, gunfire, and helicopters flying overhead.

As the situation calmed slightly in the late afternoon, residents at Science Lab in the capital’s Dhanmondi area ascended their rooftops to observe the aftermath. Among them was 24-year-old Nasima Akter, who went to the rooftop of their building in the city’s Science Lab area with her two nephews. But, none could have imagined that it would be her final moments.

According to her family members, while observing the turmoil from the rooftop, “Nasima and her nephew Ayman Uddin (20) were shot from a helicopter around 5:30pm”.

Tragically, Nasima breathed her last in the next afternoon (on July 20) while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in the city though her nephew survived with critical injury.

Nasima had come from Noakhali just two weeks earlier to visit her elder brother and Spanish expatriate Helal Uddin’s house in the Science Lab area here.

But she returned to her village home as a corpse. Nasima was laid to eternal rest in her village graveyard at Monpura in Begumganj Upazila of Noakhali on July 21.

Talking to BSS, Nasima’s sister-in-law (Helal’s wife), Rehana Akter, wailed while recounting the deadly incident.

“When Nasima was going to rooftop with my two sons around 5pm, I barred them since helicopters were still patrolling overhead in this area,” she said, recalling, at that time, Nasima insisted her to allow them to go to rooftop saying, “We’ve been stuck inside for so long. Please, let us go to the rooftop.”

At that time, seeing others on the roof, Rehana allowed them.

“Around 5pm, a bullet pierced Ayman’s chest and entered Nasima’s face, lodging in her throat. We believe the bullet was fired from the helicopter as at that time the situation in the surrounding areas was calm, and it is impossible to shoot on the ninth-floor rooftop from the ground,” she said.

Nasima, the youngest of seven siblings, including three brothers and four sisters, had studied up to class eight at a local madrasah in Noakhali.

Her father, Yusuf Ali, had passed away in 2003. Unmarried Nasima lived with and cared for her elderly mother, Saleha Begum (64) in their village home in Noakhali while her three sisters are married.

Nasima’s third brother, Arman Hossain, is also a Spanish expatriate with her elder brother Helal while their second brother Abdur Rahman is living in their village home.

Recalling the fateful incident, Ayman, who was hit by the bullet first, that killed his aunt, said “My aunt, my younger brother Sayman Uddin and I, along with a few others, were on the rooftop. Suddenly, a bullet hit my chest and passed through, hitting my aunt’s face and she collapsed immediately.”

Mentioning that his younger brother helped him to go downstairs by an elevator, he said, “After that, I don’t remember anything,” he added.

Rehana said she started screaming soon after the incident when people from the neighborhood rushed to their house and took Nasima and Ayman to Popular Hospital.

“What a situation it was during that time, there was no internet. I couldn't communicate with anyone anywhere. The people were even obstructed to take my son and sister-in-law to the hospital,” she recalled.

Doctors were able to save Ayman with their utmost efforts. But they couldn't save Nasima. Ayman returned home on August 5 after 15 days of treatment.

Nasima’s mother, Saleha, is still unable to accept her daughter’s death. “She was the youngest among all my children. Therefore, everyone loved her most. We were planning her wedding. Now she’s gone,” she cried.

Demanding justice for killing her daughter, Saleha asked the government to bring all the perpetrators under trial through proper investigation.

“I demand justice for my daughter. She did nothing wrong. They shot her dead and emptied my heart,” he demanded.