Staff Correspondent
Zakir Hossain, a resident of Manikathi village in Rahmatpur union, Babuganj, Barisal, seemed to have lost the ability to cry.
He could not accept that his son had died. He held out hope that the news was false, but the reality would soon overturn his hopes.
His son Faisal Ahmed Shanto, a quota reform protester, had indeed been killed in an attack allegedly carried out by the Chhatra League.
Zakir, who works on a ship and lives in Chittagong with his family, had come to his village for urgent work.
After the killing, relatives, neighbours and acquaintances kept ringing him up to learn more about the tragedy.
"What news could I give them?" Zakir said. "The pain of a father carrying his son's dead body is indescribable.” The thought that his son would never return broke his heart.
Around noon on Wednesday, when Shanto’s body arrived home, his parents and only sister Jannat wept inconsolably.
Villagers had come to see Shanto one last time.
There was not a dry eye among those present.
Faisal Ahmed Shanto earned his Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) from Bakalia Govt College in Chittagong.
He was then enrolled in the accounting department at MEC College.
Shanto was good in his studies and his demeanour matched his name – he was a very calm and gentle person.
Villagers said Shanto would visit occasionally, but they never saw anything bad in him. His behaviour was just as his name suggested.
After the Zuhr prayers, Shanto’s funeral prayer was held in front of Manik Kathi Govt Primary School.
Before the funeral prayer, Shanto’s father appealed to everyone to forgive his son if he had committed any offence.
“I am the father of a martyr. My son was fighting for truth and was brutally killed.”
Zakir also demanded justice for his son’s murder.
Several leaders of the quota reform movement, along with Shanto's family, relatives and neighbours, attended his funeral.
Afterwards, Shanto's body was taken to his maternal grandparents' house in the same village, where he was buried in the family graveyard.
People against quota reform had taken up positions with weapons at the site of Tuesday’s protest at Sholoshohor railway station.
When students, in small processions, began heading towards Sholoshohor, they were attacked in Muradpur.
Shots were fired and cocktails were thrown at the protesting students. Three people, including Shanto, were killed in the attack.
