They took away her son, made him a killer
Ayesha Begum had always hoped that one day her only son would get the family out of poverty.
But all of a sudden, her world fell apart when she came to know that her son, Suman Hossain Patwari, had become a militant and had a bounty on him.
Talking to The Daily Star at her Halishahar house in the port city yesterday, Ayesha, a domestic help, said she had never even imagined that Suman, the eldest of her four children, would turn into a killer.
Ayesha's next-door neighbour Mohammad Belal said, “She was so shocked by the news of the bounty on her son that she tried to commit suicide by taking poison.”
Suman was radicalised and became a terrorist just in 10 months. He has confessed to a Dhaka court that he is one of those assigned to kill Ahmedur Rashed Chowdhury Tutul, owner of Shuddhoswar Publication.
Tutul along with two others was hacked on October 31 last year at his office in the capital's Lalmatia. They eventually survived the attack.
Suman, who worked at a shop in the port city, took a month's leave in August last year, saying he needed it to prepare for examinations.
During the leave, he along with some other youths took training at a house in Tongi and later carried out the attack on Tutul.
Suman rejoined work on December 15 last year after around four months. He finally left the job in March.
He stopped all communications with his family members since March, around four months before his arrest from the airport area in the capital on June 15.
He didn't even give his mobile phone number to his family members.
In April, a tall youth visited their Halishahar house and gave his mother Tk 4,000, saying her son had sent the money.
The clean-shaven youth, who identified himself as Suman's friend, also brought some food and juice.
Talking to this newspaper, Suman's father Monir Hossain Patwari said he couldn't believe that his son had chosen the wrong path.
“He had no friends in Halishahar,” said Monir, an auto-rickshaw driver in the port city.
The 50-year-old man said he had expected that his son would get a job after obtaining an honours degree, and that he would get a relief from his hard work.
“Now all my hopes are dashed.”
Monir said they visited Suman at Dhaka Central Jail early this month after he had apologised to them for his misdeeds.
Around a month ago when this newspaper asked Monir whether they had contacted Suman, he responded with shock and anger.
“Why would I contact him? Had I asked him to send money by killing others? I work hard to run the family… I never asked him to earn money,” he had said at that time.
Suman passed SSC from science group in 2013.
He got admitted to Soraipara City Corporation Degree College in 2013, said Krisna Kanti Das, an official of the college.
Rousan Akther, principal of the college, said Suman failed in physics in last year's HSC exams. He filled in the form to sit for the exam again this year, but didn't collect his admit card.
“As the exam was scheduled for May 4, we tried to contact him over the phone on May 2 and 3, but there was no response,” she said.
Shahadat Hossain, marketing manger at Taj Traders Pvt Ltd in the port city where Suman had worked, said Suman had identified himself as Mohammed Sakib when he applied for the job.
He worked as a salesman at the scientific and surgical equipment shop in Anderkillah for around a year from March 2015, according to Shahadat.
Suman had taken leave for a month to prepare for exams from August 12 last year. But he rejoined work on December 15, around four months later.
Early this year, he again applied for leave. But this time the manager refused to grant him leave and told him to quit the job if he wanted to concentrate on his studies.
Suman finally left the job on March 3, added Shahadat.
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