A bullet struck little Jabir during a victory procession, and despite visiting several hospitals, his parents couldn’t save him. “I ran over to find Jabir shot in the thigh. Blood was spurting out, drenching his body,” recounted his mother, Rokeya Begum, in tears. “His father carried him, running desperately. Later, I took him in my arms and rushed to the hospital. But after visiting several hospitals, we couldn’t save him,” she said with a voice choked with grief.
Rokeya Begum added, “Jabir’s father is suffering the most. Jabir was in his arms when he died, but he couldn’t do anything to save his son.”
On August 5th, during a clash between police and students in Uttara, the capital city, six-year-old Jabir Ibrahim was shot and killed. Jabir lived in West Mollartek, under Dakshinkhan Police Station in Dhaka, with his parents and attended a local school. He was the youngest of three siblings. His father, Kabir Hossain, works for a private company in Dhaka.
After Sheikh Hasina resigned and left the country on August 5th, clashes erupted between the police from Uttara East Police Station and the crowd of students and civilians. Jabir was on Jasimuddin Road at that time, participating in a victory procession with his parents. That’s where the young boy was shot, still holding his father’s hand.
A large banner was hanging at Jabir’s home in West Mollartek, declaring: “We are deeply saddened by the martyrdom of Jabir Ibrahim, who was shot dead by police on August 5th during the victory celebration of the anti-discrimination quota reform movement.” The banner was put up by the coordinators of the anti-quota reform student movement.
Rokeya Begum spoke to Prothom Alo and said, “I couldn’t bear to sit at home while children were dying on the streets during the protests. We felt guilty, so we decided to join the students’ long march as a family. On the afternoon of August 5th, we joined the procession. By then, we learned that Sheikh Hasina had resigned and left the country. People were celebrating and marching joyfully in the streets.”
Initially, Rokeya didn’t want to bring Jabir to the procession. She wanted to leave him with his grandfather at home. “But Jabir insisted, saying he wanted to go with us,” she explained. Reluctantly, they took him along to the march on Jasimuddin Road in Uttara.
As the gunfire erupted, it seemed like firecrackers were going off. Jabir’s father held his hand and started running forward, while Rokeya fell behind. Jabir tripped and fell on the road, still holding his father’s hand. When they reached him, they found Jabir lying on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound in his thigh.
Blood-soaked and desperate, they rushed Jabir to a nearby hospital, where he was placed in the intensive care unit. At the same time, 96 others injured in the clashes were also brought to the hospital. The doctors asked for blood, but the hospital lacked the facilities for a cross-match. Jabir was quickly transferred to another hospital in Uttara and then to another, where doctors eventually declared him dead, Rokeya Begum explained.
She laments that if the first hospital had told them immediately that they couldn’t treat Jabir, they might have been able to save him by going elsewhere sooner. The death certificate stated that Jabir was “brought dead.” The previous hospital had recorded the injury as “bullet injury on the thigh.”
Rokeya Begum expressed her sorrow and frustration, saying, “I’m a mother. I’m neither BNP nor Awami League. So many children have died, and I went to the streets out of empathy. If they had accepted the students’ legitimate demands, this situation wouldn’t have arisen, and the children wouldn’t have died. I constantly think about the pain other mothers are enduring after losing their children, just like me. I’m not just Jabir Ibrahim’s mother; I’m the mother of every child. As a mother, I demand justice for every child’s death.”
“Every morning, Jabir used to wake up and hug me and his father. He’d ask, ‘Mom, why do you get up so early?’ For a few days, he had been drinking powdered milk in the mornings. He had it the day he died too. He’s unforgettable. Every second, his memory haunts me,” Rokeya Begum said as she recalled her son. She also stated that she would file a lawsuit against the Awami League government and the police for her son’s murder.
