Limon losing hope

For Limon the glitzy shopping malls in the capital, jam-packed with Eid shoppers, did not mean much when he came to Dhaka recently on a short trip from Savar.

"I do not buy new clothes on Eid anymore," said Limon Hossain, 20, who was shot in the left leg by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) personnel in April 2011. Later, the leg had to be amputated and was replaced with a prosthetic leg.

"It hurts when I cannot join others in new attire in the field during the Eid prayer as I cannot bend my leg and sit on the ground. Rather, I have to sit on a chair at a distance and watch them pray," he said, tears welling up in his eyes.

"I try to keep smiling though, hiding all my pains because I believe those who has inflicted such pains on me would be punished one day," said Limon, while talking to reporters at The Daily Star, during his Dhaka trip.

However, Limon and his mother Henoara Begum's lengthy legal battle against six Rab personnel, accused of attempted murder and maiming him, has started to dent his belief.

Henoara had filed the case with Rajapur Police Station on April 10, 2011, after Limon was shot by a Rab team at Shaturia village in Jhalakathi on March 16, 2011.

Rab had mistaken him for a notorious criminal, but instead of admitting their mistake, they filed two cases against him — one for possessing arms and the other for obstructing law enforcers from discharging their duties.

After the incident came to media attention, rights bodies protested the crime vehemently, demanding justice to Limon. Finally on July 11, 2013, the government issued a gazette notification for withdrawing the two cases the elite force had filed against him.

Fifteen months after the notification Limon was cleared of all criminal charges, but justice still remains a far cry as the case his mother has filed continues to face obstruction.

On August 14, 2012, police secretly submitted the final report on the case to a court saying they found no evidence and witnesses against the Rab personnel.

On August 30, 2012, Limon's mother filed 'no confidence' petition against the final report, which was rejected by a Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court on February 13, 2013.

"Then we appealed to the District and Sessions Judges Court for a revision against the order of the Senior Judicial Magistrate's Court in 2013," said Akkas Sikder, the lawyer, who volunteered to help Limon fight the legal battle, along with the Ain O Salish Kendra's lawyer.

"Almost two years later, towards the beginning of 2015, partial hearing of the case was held and the next hearing date was fixed in August this year," he told The Daily Star.

"Usually in revision cases, hearing dates are fixed within one and a half months but it does not take two years," he said, noting the unusual delay Henoara's case is facing.

In fact, Limon, who used to study business management in a college in Jhalakhati four years ago, shifted to law studies so that he could help poor victims of gross human rights violation, like himself.

Now a second year law college student, he is studying at Somaj Bhittik Medical College and Gonobishwabidyalay in Savar for free, thanks to rights activists.

"Even in 2015 there is no progress of the case filed in 2011," he said, talking about his diminishing faith on the legal system.

"Considering the way it is moving, I may be able to fight my own case, once I complete my studies and start practising as a lawyer," mused the young man, whose leg was maimed but whose mind could not be crippled by Rab's bullet.