Shell-shocked family of Shia mosque attack victim wants justice

There were tears and sighs all around the small house as the family members and neighbours mourned Moazzem Hossain, the muezzin of the Shia mosque in Bogra, killed in Thursday's shooting.

On the veranda, his wife and daughter were wailing holding each other. Inside the house, his son was sobbing.

People kept coming to the house in Haripur village of Shibganj yesterday, but everybody was at a loss for words to console the family. They were still reeling from the shock and disbelief over the shooting on praying people inside the mosque that left the 70-year-old muezzin dead.

The family members were searching for answers why he had to meet such a tragic end.

“Everybody in the village loved and respected my father. He was a simple man with no enemies,” said Moazzem's son Shahajul Islam.

Roofed with corrugated iron sheets, the old and shabby house was evidence of the family's poverty. A small brick section of the house had patches of plaster falling off the walls.

Apart from the house, the family owns a piece of farmland of around 1.5 bigha.

Moazzem took up the muezzin's job at the mosque when it was set up five years ago. He received Tk 1,000 a month and some donations from the mosque committee.

His wife Komela Begum is a homemaker. Moazzem married off his daughter Sajeda Khatun who lives with her husband and two children in a nearby village.

His son Shahajul is a farm worker and also works at a local brickfield.

Yet the family had been happy as they had good relations with everybody.

“I don't know what our fault is. I want justice for the murder of my father,” said Shahajul.

Neighbours said they were stunned as they never saw such violence in the area before.

“We want the government nab the killers and give them exemplary punishment,” said one of the neighbours.