Bus driver Abu Zafar was shot dead on his way to work

My younger brother was a bus driver. Shot dead while walking to work. He had no crime.' His brother Belayet Hawladar said this about bus driver Abu Zafar alias Badshar (49), who was shot dead in Golap Bagh area of ​​the capital in a clash centered on the quota reform movement.

Zafar's village home is in Chota Machua village of Mathbaria upazila of Pirojpur. This reporter went to his house yesterday and talked to his family members and relatives. Abu Jafar, the youngest son of the family, lived in his father's house with his wife and three sons. He was the driver of Shyamoli Paribahan. On the evening of July 18, he was shot dead during the movement at Golap Bagh in the capital. His body was buried at the village house on July 19 night.

After going to Zafar's house yesterday afternoon, it was seen that inside the house, the old mother Setara Begum was crying over the loss of her son. Hasina Begum has been in mourning ever since she got the news of her husband's death. Relatives said that Abu Jafar's family was running on his income. They don't have any other assets except the ancestral homestead.

Jafar's family members claim that on the evening of July 17, he left Mathbaria for Dhaka with a passenger bus of Shyamoli Paribahan. The next afternoon, the transport officials called him and asked him to go to the bus counter. After receiving the call, he left his house in Dhaka around seven in the evening and was walking towards his workplace. Later, after reaching Golap Bagh area of ​​the capital, the police shot him and pierced his neck and chest. He collapsed on the road on the spot. The passers-by rescued him and took him to Mugda Hospital where doctors declared him dead. They received the news of Zafar's death on the phone from a woman passerby.

What is my husband's crime? Why did he have to die in police firing? Hasina Begum, Jafar's wife, was speaking with anger. She said, 'My husband was the only earner in the family. Among the three sons, the eldest son completed his studies and is unemployed. The elder son studies in a madrasa in Keraniganj and the younger son studies in the fifth standard in a local school. We are destitute in his death. We have no assets other than our homestead.

"What will you write now, you will not be able to return my father"
Zafar's eldest son Shaun Howladar said, "My father used to drive a rickshaw in his early life. Then became assistant bus driver and later bus driver. The family lived on the father's income. After his death, the family income stopped. Spending the day eating food given by uncles. I received 10,000 taka assistance for burial from the upazila administration.

Touching his father's memory, his younger son Naeem Howladar said, "When my father came home from Dhaka, he used to bring mangoes." He used to bring chips for me and drink for grandma. We used to eat mango and milk every day. No more mangoes were eaten after father's death.