Man walks street in search of his son’s body

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A father was seen walking the streets of Phulbari in Dinajpur district yesterday with the front page of a national daily’s August 27 issue featuring a photo of his 13-year-old son who died in BDR firing on demonstrators on August 26.

Salahuddin Azam, the 37-year-old father from West Gouripara, was asking people if they saw the body of his son Afsar Jaksu or if they could tell him where he might find the body.

“I did not know my son had died,” Azam told The Daily Star. “I came to learn about his death from the newspaper the next day. I have been searching for his body ever since,” the tearful father said standing next to a rally organised by the protestoers at Neemtola intersection yesterday.

Afsar worked at a bakery shop very close to the spot where the firing took place.

“I went to the Dinajpur Medical College and Hospital in search of my son’s body but people there said they had sent all the three bodies to the Dinajpur Police Station,” Azam said.

“I went to the police station only to hear that the bodies were handed over to their family members,” Azam said.

Azam’s may not be the only case of anguish and agony.

Meanwhile, the confusion over the actual number of dead in the Phulbari incident grew.

While the National Committee for Preservation of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources and Electricity-Port claimed the death toll to be seven, the police remained firm on their stand of three dead.

Medical Officer Sarwar Ul Islam of Phulbari Health Complex said they had sent seven injured people to Dinajpur Medical College and Hospital for treatment along with two dead bodies. But he could not say if Afsar was among them.

The civil surgeon of Dinajpur told The Daily Star over cell phone that they had received seven injured on August 26 and one of them died that night. He, however, could not give the total number of dead people.

Meanwhile, chief of the Forensic Department of Dinajpur Medical College and Hospital Dr Yunis Ali said over telephone that they received three dead bodies on August 26 and all of them were from Phulbari. But he denied to have received any from the medical college.

Visiting Additional Superintendent of Police Ruhul Amin told The Daily Star that they had only three dead bodies on that day “as only three had died”. Those bodies were of Tariqul Islam, 18, Amin, 14, and Salekin Raju, 14.

He said Tariqul was from Phulbari, Amin from neighbouring Barokona and Salekin from Nawabganj upazila.

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