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Aug 21 Grenade Attacks

Father's death kills his dreams

Bishawjit Das
Pallab's studies came to an abrupt halt as his father Rafiqul Islam, popularly known as Ada Chacha, died in the August 21 carnage last year.
Rezaul Islam Pallab, who was attending the ninth semester of BBA at North South University, had been compelled to discontinue his studies due to financial constraints.
"My ninth semester ended just four days before the attack," Pallab told The Daily Star yesterday, "And since then, for almost a year I've been absenting from the university as my family cannot afford to pay for my studies."
Pallab has four brothers and three sisters none well off to support the family as well as bear the expenses for Pallab's education.
Biplop, one of his brothers, lives in Italy but cannot contribute anything to the family as he has to count a substantial amount as payment in instalment for the loan his father took to send him abroad, said Pallab.
Rafiq, who was a widower and 68-years-old when he died, was an adviser to Dhaka City unit of Awami League (AL) and member of AL central committee.
He would look after the family of his eight children all by himself. He had mortgaged his house for the education of the children. He was as dutiful, loving and caring to his family as he was devoted to the party, said his children.
"Abba [Rafiq] would rise before dawn, say his fazr prayers, and mop our entire three-katha house," Mazharul Islam Mamun, Rafiq's third child, said, adding, "Before going to his shop at 8:00am, he would wake us up and enquire if we need anything."
Rafiq, hailing from a village of Homna upazila in Comilla, first came to the capital to participate in a procession during the days of the Language Movement in 1952 and never returned.
He took part in the Liberation War of 1971 and was shot in the leg in a battle in Comilla. After independence, he had kept away from the party for a couple of years and instead concentrated on the trade of selling bicycle spares.
He had seldom missed any meeting, procession or rally of AL for 30 long years. He would prepare chewing ginger and take in a small container to every programme of the party. Besides, he used to take pocketful of guavas from his tree at the house lawn.
He was well known to all for sharing those with his fellow party men, law enforcers and journalists in the rallies.
"He would buy around 18 types of spices and crush those to fine powder. Then he would add the powder to smashed ginger," said Pallab.
"He had a wooden frame, knife and a tin-tray to cut, smash and bake the ingredients of the ginger item. He never let anyone get close to him during preparation of the item, which he would do sometimes even in the dead of night," he added.
He used to call AL President Sheikh Hasina mother. He never missed any programmes addressed by Hasina and went to airport almost every time the AL chief left the country or returned back.
Immediately after the August 21 blasts, which killed 22 people and injured over 100, rescuers found Rafiq leaning against a closed shutter of a shop on Bangabandhu Avenue. Shrapnel smashed both his legs. Three splinters pierced though his ribs, one through his right chin while some might have reached his brain, Pallab said, who rushed to the hospital hearing the news.
"My elder brother [Chanchal] first thought Abba was sleeping," Pallab said, narrating the gruesome experience he and his brothers had in Dhaka Medical College and Hospital in the aftermath of the blasts. "It seemed he was having rest after a long day of work," he recollects.
AL had helped the family to clear the mortgage of the house, family members said. "None of the government officials has ever visited us even to make query about the dead," Mamun alleged.
The family members expressed disgust at the way the government is probing the August 21 grenade attacks on the AL rally.
"This government will not properly investigate the grisly crime," said Mamun, adding, "All they [government] are doing is a farce in the name of probe and trial."
"We like to know who the killers were, and the trial may come later," said Maya, daughter of Rafiq. "Even if Awami league had made the attack, as claimed by the government, we want to know the names of the mastermind behind the cowardly and cruel attack," she added.