Photo: BSS

By Md Mamun Islam
 
RANGPUR, May 24, 2025 (BSS) – Due to extreme poverty, seventeen-year-old teenager Md Sohag could not continue his studies at the madrasa and become a Hafiz, even after memorizing eight chapters (Para) of the Holy Quran.
 
On the day of his martyrdom on July 19 last year, his mother Salma Begum cooked potato stuffing, pulse and rice as desired by Sohag to eat after the Juma prayers, but he never returned home after the Friday prayers.
 
At home, his mother was sewing a white pillowcase that morning. Seeing that scene, a white-color lover Sohag told his mother that he would sleep with that cover on his pillow that night.
 
But fate cruelly turned him away from home that day. He never slept with his head on that pillow covered with that white pillowcase.
 
When he took part in a massive protest march of the anti-discrimination student movement after Friday prayers, wearing his favorite white Punjabi-pajamas and a cap, the police perhaps mistook him for a Shibir activist.
 
It was the Islamic religious garb that Sohag was wearing that day for attending Juma prayers.
 
Police shot Sohag in close range.  He was killed by police gunfire.       
 
Sohag’s parents and only elder brother were narrating all these while talking to this BSS correspondent at their house in remote Baro Paharpur village under Shanerhat union of Pirganj upazila in Rangpur recently.
 
Sohag's father, Md Rezaul Mia, 52, is basically a landless and extremely poor daily wage laborer. His mother Salma Begum, 45, is a housewife.
 
The Rezaul-Salma couple is blessed with two sons, Md Sohel, 29, and Md Sohag, 17.
 
Unable to survive in extreme poverty, Rezaul left his village for Ashulia in Dhaka, with his wife Salma Begum and eldest son Sohel Mia in 2009.
 
The poor father had to leave Sohag then at home with his grandmother Naujadi, who is now 90. Sohag was too young at that time.
 
Rezaul started working as a loader at the 4S-Spark Style Ltd garment factory in Durgapur area of Ashulia, Dhaka. His wife Salma Begum also started working there as a helper.
 
Sohel was only 12 years old at the time. He used to work in a tea shop as a boy and earned Taka 800 a month.
 
The members of this extremely poor family tried their best to survive. Their total income was Taka 5,000 per month. They lived in a small rented house in Ashulia area for Taka 1,200 per month.
 
During this time, Sohel learned to sew in his spare time, got a job in the same garment factory in 2010 and he worked there until 2018.
 
During this time, Sohel married his relative Nadira Akhter, 25, from Natore district, in Ashulia in 2015. The couple now has two sons, Nabil Mia, 10, and Nahid Mia, 1.
 
Later, Sohag opened a tailoring shop in Ashulia, trained his wife in sewing, and employed her with him. The family began to live relatively well.
 
In the meantime, Sohag had memorized eight chapters of the Holy Quran at a local madrasa near his ancestral village Baro Paharpur in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur.
 
Despite her ill health, her grandmother Naujadi tried her best to raise Sohag amidst extreme poverty. But, she soon fell ill. In this situation, Rezaul Mia took Sohag to Ashulia in 2016, when Sohag was only 9 years old.
 
Thus, the education of Sohag reached its end. Because he was so young, no one in Ashulia hired him for any job.
 
During this time, Sohel opened his own small garment factory in Ashulia with a loan of Taka 18 lakh from a private bank in 2021. A local youth also invested Taka five lakh and became a partner in running the factory.
 
Sohag also started working at the factory of Sohel. By 2022, a talented Sohag learned almost all the sewing works there.
 
“Earlier during the Covid-19 pandemic, my business suffered a huge setback. Later, I could manage the situation after launching the factory. An Indian business man Chumudas Saha, a buying agent of ‘Sultan Brand’ of Chennai, became a big buyer of my products,” said Sohel.
 
His business with Chumudas was very good.
 
“But, at one point in 2022, he cut off all contact with me after buying my clothes worth Taka 38 lakh, due to which I soon became a beggar," said Sohel.
 
Despite his best efforts, Sohel could not get in touch with Chumudas Saha. He somehow got the phone number of Chumudas’s wife and spoke to her, when the woman said she knew nothing.
 
At about the same time, his local business partner also embezzled Taka 2.5 lakh after withdrawing his share of Taka five lakh from the business.
 
At the same time, his manager, a man from Pabna district, also embezzled a huge amount.
 
Sohel had nothing left and he lost the factory to others. Soon he suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. One side of his body became paralyzed.
 
The entire family lost their peace of life. All their hard work went to waste and they became like beggars again.
 
After a long period of treatment, Sohel partially recovered in 2023. However, he did not even have money to buy food.
 
All this happened in front of Sohag. He could do nothing to save his brother from the conspiracy of his pro-Awami League business partner, manager and some other people.
 
“Sohag could not tolerate the dishonest actions of my pro-Awami League business partner and factory manager. From then on, he developed a hatred for the Awami League,” Sohel said.
 
After partially recovering, Sohel, with the help of his acquaintance, businessman Zahidul Islam, left Ashulia and came to Dhaka city's Uttar Badda with his parents and Sohag in February 2023 and rented a tiny room.
 
In extreme poverty, he sent his parents back home to Rangpur.
 
With the help of Zahidul Islam and his landlord, Akhter Hossain, Sohel again started sewing clothes with his wife Nadira and brother Sohag in a shop in Uttar Badda.
 
In 2023, Sohag got a job at Color King Printing Press in Uttar Badda, GM Bari, Dhaka, with a monthly salary of Taka 7,500.
 
Sohel and Sohag then brought their parents back to Dhaka and rented another room in their house.
 
Their father, Rezaul Mia, started driving a rickshaw and their mother, Salma Begum, started cooking in a students' mess to supplement the income of their two struggling sons.
 
After repeated failures, the family was becoming somewhat prosperous again to lead a better life.
 
“Meanwhile, I have repaid all my bank loans taken in Ashulia by June 2024. I am grateful to the manager of that private bank who always helped me with advice instead of harassing me,” Sohel said.
 
At such a time, when the July Movement began, Sohag, a pious youth, began to participate in all the protest marches in the afternoon. Sohag wanted the downfall of the fascist Sheikh Hasina.
 
Rezaul Mia and Salma Begum said that after the martyrdom of Begum Rokeya University student Abu Sayeed in Rangpur on July 16, the situation in Dhaka city and across the country became more unstable.
 
Thousands of students and the public took part in protest marches on the streets of Dhaka. On July 18, Sohag went to his in-laws' house in Natore where his pregnant wife was staying.
 
On the night of July 18, Sohel advised Sohag over the phone from Natore not to participate in the protest marches anymore because the situation was unstable and many people had already been killed in police firing and attacks by Awami activists .

"In response, Sohag said, no one should stay at home. Everyone should come out and protest until Sheikh Hasina's fascist regime falls," Sohel said, quoting Sohag's statement over the phone.
 
Sohag’s mother, Salma Begum, said Sohag woke up at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 19, his day off.
 
Instead of breakfast, he played with his pet pigeons that morning, with his neighbor friends and aunts as spectators. They loved him very much.
 
“Sohag told me, ‘Mom, instead of beef, please cook stuffing-dal-rice for me today. I will eat it after Friday prayers,’” she said.
 
“He also asked me to finish sewing the white pillowcase so that he could sleep with a new pillow with that pillowcase at night. I started sewing it in the morning," her mother said, crying.
 
“My son was not destined to eat stuffing-dal-rice and sleep with his head on a pillow with the new pillowcase, even though I made them for him in time,” Salma said, adding that Sohag offered five-time prayers everyday.
 
“Sohag wanted to become a Hafiz of the Holy Quran. But, because of poverty and our running from one place to another to survive against poverty, that did not happen,” the mother said.
 
"After taking a bath in the afternoon, Sohag wore his favorite white Punjabi, pajama, and a cap like every Friday and went to the mosque like an angel to offer Friday prayers. But, my beloved son never came back alive," the mother said in a very heavy voice.
 
Rezaul Mia said, “It was Friday, July 19. Sohag went to the mosque without having breakfast, offered Friday prayers, did not return home and went to participate in a protest march in the Uttar Badda area with friends.”
 
At around 3:30 pm, some of Sohag’s friends informed Rezaul Mia that Sohag was injured in police firing while participating in the indomitable anti-discrimination student-public movement protest marches in Uttar Badda area.
 
“Along with a neighbour, I rushed to the AMZ Hospital Ltd in Uttar Badda. But nobody could give me any concrete information about Sohag. Then, I entered inside the mortuary room where I found the body of Sohag lying with 25/30 other dead bodies there at 5 pm,” he said.
 
The father immediately fainted there in the hospital. After some time, he came to sense with the assistance of nurses there.
 
“Hiring a rickshaw, I left the hospital with Sohag’s body, but Awami League people didn’t allow me to move further when I reached Alir Mour point in Uttar Badda area,” he said.
 
Rezaul Islam said the Awami league people there tried to force me to hand over the body to them instead of taking it home.
 
“I had no money in my pocket. I requested the Awami League people not to disturb me in carrying the body home. But, they suggested that I hand over the body to them when I denied again and again,” he said.
 
“Some drivers and helpers came there and started collecting money from people there to help in taking the body to my village in Rangpur. They collected Taka 50,000 within an hour and hired an ambulance at Taka 30,000,” he said.
 
But again the Awami League men asked Rezaul not to carry the body to his village and bury it at Dhaka.
 
“The Awami League men said that they will burn the body if I try again to carry that to my village in Rangpur,” Rezaul said, adding that he told the ambulance driver to go back.
 
Later, with the help of others, Rezaul hired a pick-up van at about 1 am after midnight and carried the body to his village in Pirganj upazila of Rangpur at 6 am the next day.
 
“We buried Sohag’s body at 11 am on July 20 last,” Rezaul said, adding that they left Dhaka and started living in the village after the martyrdom of Sohag.