Published : 31 Jul 2024, 07:27 PM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 11:43 AM
Two and a half months ago, Sumaiya Akhter gave birth to a baby daughter. The stitches on her stomach from the C-section had not yet healed when she was shot to death on Jul 21 amid the violence surrounding the quota reform movement.
According to her family members, Sumaiya was standing on the sixth-floor balcony of her house in the Notun Mohalla area of Siddhirganj’s Painadi area in Narayanganj when the incident occurred.
Her mother, Asma Begum, was standing right next to her when Sumaiya suddenly fell on the floor when a bullet struck her head.
A pool of blood stained Asma’s hands as she attempted to shift Sumaiya’s head from the floor to her lap.
“She was breastfeeding in another room. She came to the balcony when the baby fell asleep after having milk. She fell on the floor right after.”
“I was unable to comprehend the situation at first. I called out her name so many times, but there was no response. Then I realised that she was no longer alive,” said Asma.
“She couldn’t even say a single word. She couldn’t even ask me to look after her baby girl,” she added.
Sumaiya was immediately rushed to a local private hospital following the incident.
She was already dead by the time her body arrived at the hospital, said the doctor.
On Jul 21, the day of her killing, violence escalated surrounding the quota reform protests as law enforcing agencies clashed with the protesters in Shimrail and its neighbouring areas.
According to eyewitnesses, a multi-storied building was set on fire around 4:30pm that day when the bullet killed Sumaiya. There was a highway police camp inside the building.
Sumaiya Akhter was the daughter of Asma Begum and the late Selim Matbar, a resident of Barishal’s Mehendiganj. Her husband, Md Zahid, is a garment factory worker who lives in a rented house in Sonargaon’s Kachpur.
After becoming pregnant, Sumaiya left her job at the garment factory and moved to her in-law’s house in Cumilla.
Asma says she brought her daughter and the newborn baby to her house after Sumaiya gave birth on May 12. She was supposed to go back to her in-laws in a week.
According to Asma, the six-storey building they were staying in was close to the building that was vandalised in Shimrail on Jul 21.
“Sumaiya was supposed to leave for her in-law’s home the coming Friday. But all of this happened before she could leave. Why did I bring my girl with me?” said Asma, blaming herself for the incident with tears in her eyes.
Asma showed the place where the bullet had penetrated through her balcony grills when speaking to bdnews24.com on Tuesday.
She said: “I couldn’t understand anything initially. But when I placed my hands on her head, the blood stained my hands. I couldn’t stop the bleeding even when I put pressure onto the wound. By the time we went to the doctor’s, she was already dead. She couldn’t even call me ‘Ma’ once.”
When Asma moved to the city with her husband, her children were small. Her husband worked as a security guard. He passed away during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, her daughter has also left her.
“We are poor. I came to Dhaka with my children as we weren’t able to feed them. My daughter died from a bullet. Who will I ask for justice?” said Asma.
