Killed and forgotten

Salma has yet to get accustomed to the fact that something bad could happen to her son Ratan.

"Every time I hear the name 'Ratan', I get startled; a thought involuntarily passes my mind -- 'Has something happened to Ratan again?'," said Omar Faruq Ratan's mother Salma Begum.

 Many remember the assassination of Awami League lawmaker Ahsanullah Master, but a lot of people have forgotten that the 18-year-old boy was shot and killed on May 7, 2004, along with the president of Jatiya Sramik League.

Even no case was filed in connection with his murder.

"I heard that the verdict of Ahsanullah Sir's murder will be announced today. Ratan's father did not go out the whole day. The two of us had been sitting together in front of the TV since morning," she told this correspondent, adding that the High Court judgment could not make the parents happy.

Ratan's family did not file any case. The young man's name as a murder victim came up in the case filed by Ahsanullah Master's brother.

The HC yesterday delivered the appeal verdict in the murder case.

While a Speedy Tribunal on April 16, 2005, handed down death sentences to 22 people and life terms to six others, the HC yesterday upheld the death penalty of six of the accused.

Of the rest, nine accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, 11 were acquitted and two died during the hearing of the case.

"No one told us Ratan was dead. I went looking for him and reaching the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, I came to know of his death," said Ratan's father Foyezur Rahman.

That year Ratan had sat for his Secondary School Certificate examination from Naogaon's Abdul Majid High School, said his father.

"After the exams, as he had time to spare, he would often go to attend the meetings and processions organised by Ahsanullah Sir," said his mother.

"He didn't understand anything about politics but would put on a bandana and walk at the front of processions," Salma reminisced. "He used to tell me 'Ma I like going to meetings and processions'."

On May 7, 2004, Ratan had gone to biennial conference of Awami Swechchhasebak League at Noagaon of Tongi.

"Ahsanullah Sir had asked him for water. He brought water and Ahsanullah Sir even drank it, after which Sir was shot," Foyezur recounted the event of that fateful day.

Assailants shot 54-year-old Ahsanullah around 12:25pm from behind the dais. Ratan was fatally wounded while 17 other people were injured.

"He was a brave and honest boy. He had caught hold of a guy after the first round of shots, but then he too was gunned down by the assailants," said Foyezur.   

"None barred us from filing a case. We ourselves chose not to file one," said Salma, adding that the family knew that they could not afford the legal expenses.

"Since Ahsanullah Sir's brother filed the case as a plaintiff, we hoped that we would get justice," she said.

The HC in its judgment had mentioned that just like Ahsanullah Master's family members, Omar Faruque Ratan's father and mother also expect justice.

But the sentence awarded to the accused could not bring peace to Ratan's parents. "We would have been happy if the previous verdict was upheld," said Foyezur, referring to the lower court verdict.

He hoped that the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court would uphold the lower court verdict.

"For 12 years I held my hope. I prayed to Allah so that the actual assailants of Ahsanullah Sir and my Baba [Ratan] are brought to book, hoping that if the killers are not tried in their lifetimes then Allah would try them in the afterlife," said the bereaved mother.