By Md Mamun Islam
 
RANGPUR, May 31, 2025 (BSS) – Tabassum Maira, the seven-year-old eldest daughter of forty-three-year-old engineer Md Taufiqul Islam Bhuyia, asked him, "Dad, where are you going?"
 
“I am going to fight a war, ammu. The fascist Sheikh Hasina has destroyed the country. I have to fight to save our homeland," Taufiqul answered his beloved daughter hastily, but with an emotional look at Maira.
 
Their younger daughter Tasbi Mehrima, 03, was playing in the room.
 
At that time, Taufiqul was preparing to go out of the house to join the anti-discrimination student movement protest marches avoiding the eyes of his beloved wife Esmot Jahan Elora, 29. 
 
While doing housework in the next room after breakfast with her husband, Elora soon heard the sound of closing the door, as Taufiqul hurriedly started descending the stairs at around 10 am.
 
"I ran quickly, opened the door and in a panicked mood asked Taufiqul where he was! He was still going down the stairs," Elora said.
 
At that time, another resident of the same building was telling Taufiqul not to go outside as Awami League and police thugs were attacking the protest march and firing indiscriminately.
 
"I'm coming back," Taufiqul replied immediately, without returning back up the stairs," Elora said.
 
The couple with their two daughters had been living happily for the last few years in a rented flat on the third floor of a seven-storey residential building in Merul Badda under the Badda police station of the capital city.
 
These conversations between the father-daughter and husband-wife took place for the last time on July 19, 2024 at about 10 am at their rented flat in Merul Badda.

Amid indiscriminate killing of students-public by the police of the fascist Sheikh Hasina’s regime in those days of July, 2024, Elora used to forbid her husband from attending protest marches, thinking about the future of their two minor daughters.

So, a very politically aware and patriotic engineer, Taufiqul who couldn’t tolerate any injustice since childhood, would try to leave home to participate in protest marches without informing his wife.

But who knew that, it was Taufiqul's last conversation with his daughter Maira!
 
Talking to BSS recently at Taufiqul's ancestral home in Mohadebpur village near Paglapeer under Sadar upazila of Rangpur and other locations, his wife Elora, mother, brothers and other family members narrated the story of his martyrdom.

Taufiqul Islam Bhuyia (Paltu) was born in a middle class family in Mohadebpur village.
 
He had been a very talented person since childhood. He had an interest in sports. He played football, badminton and cricket.

Taufiqul was the third child among three sons and one daughter in the family.

His freedom fighter father Md Abdul Hadi Bhuyia was a retired warrant officer of Bangladesh Army.
 
He spent whatever he earned from his job on his children's education. He had no other property except a house on four hundred decimals of land in the village.

He died on January 24, 2024 at the age of 80.

Taufiqul’s mother Most Hosneara Begum, 70, is a housewife. She suffers from diabetes, back and knee pain.
 
His elder brother Md Tariqul Islam Bhuyia, 50, is a government employee in the Election Commission Secretariat in the capital.

He lives in the Mirpur area of the capital with his wife Anwara Begum, a son, and a daughter.

Taufiqul’s only sister Shabnam Akter Lipi, 47, lives in Canada with her engineer husband and a daughter.

His younger brother Md Thohidul Islam Bhuyia, 40, is a diploma engineer. He serves at the Rural Electrification Board (REB) in Tangail. He lives there with his wife, one daughter, and one son.

After passing his SSC examination from Paglapeer School and College near his village in 1997, Taufiqul enrolled in the Electrical Technology Department of Rangpur Polytechnic Institute.

He completed his diploma course in 2002. Later, Taufiqul joined REB in Laxmipur district.
 
After a few years, he left REB and joined Pedrollo NK Limited at Pedrollo House in Segun Bagicha area of Dhaka city.

In the meantime, he completed his B.Sc. course in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from European University Bangladesh (EUB) in the 'Fall 2017' semester.

He worked at Pedrollo NK Limited until his martyrdom.

Taufiqul married Elora in 2015 while studying B.Sc. Engineering and working at Pedrollo NK Limited simultaneously.

A resident of Shyampur village in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur, Elora is the eldest of three daughters and one son of her late father, retired Bangladesh Police member Md Emdadul Haque.
 
Her mother Ayesha Siddika, 47, is a housewife.
 
Elora married Taufiqul on September 28, 2015, while she was a first-year (honors) student of the Philosophy Department at Begum Rokeya Government College, Rangpur.
 
Her sister Siyamum Akhter, 26, is married. She lives with her policeman husband and one son.
 
Elora's only brother, Ashikur Rahman, 22, joined the Bangladesh Police in 2024 to support his family without completing his diploma course at Kurigram Polytechnic Institute.
 
Her younger sister, Ishrat Jahan Esa, is a tenth-grade student at a local madrasa.

Elora said, "My husband, Taufiqul Islam, was an Islamic-minded, honest and pious man, a very devoted son of the family, a caring husband and a happy father, an honest, humble, social and charitable person."
 
During the anti-quota and anti-discrimination student movement in July 2024, Taufiqul often participated in protest marches.
 
As the situation worsened due to the torture and killing of innocent students and the public by the police and Awami League terrorists, Taufiqul became concerned about the future of the country and its people.

Meanwhile, on July 16, when Abu Sayeed, a student of Rangpur Begum Rokeya University, was shot dead by police, Taufiqul became seriously disturbed mentally.

"The video of police shooting Abu Sayeed while he was protesting with his arms and chest outstretched in front of his university, soon went viral on YouTube," said Elora.

Taufiqul changed his laptop display with the picture of Abu Sayeed being shot by the police and quite often he would stare at it the whole time, thinking. He was deeply disappointed.

On July 18, a day before his martyrdom, Taufiqul returned home at 4 pm, leaving his motorcycle at his office in the Segun Bagicha area.

Amid indiscriminate police firing and attacks by Awami terrorists everywhere, a terrifying situation was prevailing in the capital city.

He participated in the protest march near the BRAC University area until 10:30 that night and returned home.

Around 11:00 that night, Taufiqul was sitting on his bed, looking at the historic picture of Abu Sayeed’s martyrdom pinned to his laptop wall.

“At that time, Taufiqul spent a lot of time talking about fascist Sheikh Hasina's oppression, torture and mass genocide, and the future of the country and its people,” Elora said.

"Sheikh Hasina has destroyed the country. We must save our country by ousting her, making any sacrifice for the better future of our next generation," she said, quoting her husband.

The next day, July 19 (Friday), at 8:30 a.m., Taufiqul left the house in a hurry without having breakfast.
 
“He came back at 9:30 am and had breakfast with me at home. Then, we talked for a while and I went to the next room to do my housework,” Elora said.

At that time, Maira asked her father Taufiqul where he was going.

“Taufiqul replied to Maira that he was going to fight,” she said.

“At around 10 am, when Taufiqul opened the door and started going down the stairs, I ran quickly in fear and asked about his whereabouts,” she said.

“I’m coming back,” Taufiqul replied immediately as he went down the stairs, without coming back up the stairs,” Elora said, crying.

Just 30 minutes after Taufiqul left the house, their building's caretaker, Nuru Mia, quickly ran to Elora. He handed over her husband's bloody mobile phone to her, informing her that Taufiqul Sir had been shot by police nearby.

“Immediately, I left my two daughters with the family in the next flat and went to the nearby AIMS Hospital Ltd with the building manager. Students and the public brought Taufiqul there after he was injured in police firing at Rampur Bridge Point,” said Elora.

As there was no doctor at that hospital at that time, Elora with their building manager somehow took Taufiqul to the nearby AMZ Hospital Ltd at 12:30 pm when the muezzin was calling for Friday prayers.

“The doctor at AMZ Hospital Ltd said that the bullet went through Taufiqul's navel and cut his urinary bladder, it also fractured the two bones in his spine, and exited through his back, injuring him critically,” Elora said.

Meanwhile, Elora’s elder brother-in-law Tariqul Islam Bhuyia from Mirpur, along with his wife Anwara Begum, arrived at AMZ Hospital amidst heavy gunfire on the streets.
 
After completing the dressing on the injured area, the doctor asked Elora and his relatives to immediately take Taufiqul to the nephrology department of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

After being taken there, the authorities concerned refused to admit Taufiqul and said that it was a police case.
 
“No ambulance dared to take us to DMCH with Taufiqul due to the heavy gunfire on the streets. When we agreed to compensate him, if anything bad happened on the way, the ambulance driver took us to DMCH after 4 pm,” said Elora.

Taufiqul needed two major emergency surgeries on his spine and urinary bladder.
 
Despite the best efforts of Elora, her brothers-in-law Tariqul and Thohidul, Anwara Begum and many other relatives, they could not avail treatment at DMCH either. Elora even donated a bag of blood for Taufiqul.
 
“Taufiqul breathed his last at 8:30 am on July 21, without undergoing surgery for two days at DMCH,” said Thohidul, adding that their elder brother Tariqul had also fainted there shortly after Taufiqul‘s death.

“My husband, Taufiqul, was conscious from the time he was injured until shortly before his death,” said Elora.

She alleged that due to the autocratic rule of fascist Sheikh Hasina, they were unable to provide Taufiqul with proper treatment despite their best efforts.

At 7 am on July 22, Taufiqul’s body was brought to his ancestral village of Mohadebpur in Rangpur.
 
As hundreds of locals began to gather to attend Taufiqul’s funeral, intelligence officials restricted his family members from organizing a larger funeral and ordered a quick burial.

"However, several thousand people attended Taufiqul’s funeral prayer at the Paglapeer Jame Mosque ground at 11 am, as intelligence officials retreated from the area, fearing public anger," said Thohidul.
 
Later, Taufiqul was buried at the local Paglapeer Graveyard at 11:30 am.
 
Taufiqul’s wife Elora, mother Anwar Begum, brothers Tariqul and Thohidul demanded exemplary punishments for his killers.

“Please pray for my Shaheed son Taufiqul Islam,” said the mother, crying, adding that he had taken charge of the family since his father's death.

Taufiqul was his mother's only refuge, after she lost her husband. He was the shadow of a banyan tree for his two beloved minor daughters. After losing their father, the tears of his two innocent children are endless.
 
“Our daughter Maira often told her father, "Dad, I will grow up to be a pilot. I will take you, mom and younger sister abroad on a plane. His father would say, okay, you grow up first. If Almighty Allah is willing, it will happen,” said Elora with teary eyes.

Maira is now a first-grade student at Rangpur Police Lines School and College. Her mother, Elora, takes her to school every day. She doesn't know what will happen to that dream of her daughter and her martyred husband.