Musa Khan, seven years old, was the apple of his grandmother鈥檚 eye. Maya Islam, who used to deal with all his tantrums, had almost always been with her grandchild.
But a bullet tore them apart as it pierced through Musa鈥檚 head and hit Maya in the lower abdomen at about 3:00pm on July 19 when they were standing in the garage of their rented house near the Rampura police station in Dhaka.
The stray bullet hit the two when protests seeking reforms in civil service job reservations were running high on the road and the police were chasing the students and firing into them.
Musa has since then been fighting for life in Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Maya died early morning the next day.
Musa鈥檚 battle for life in the intensive care unit did not allow his father, Md Mostafizur Rahman, to attend Maya鈥檚 last rites in their village home in Tangail.
Musa, now being cared for in Combined Military Hospital, has undergone five surgeries. He cannot recognise his parents and can only move his right leg and hand, Mostafizur said on September 19.
鈥楲ife has changed in a moment. We don鈥檛 have time to feel the pain,鈥� he said. Physicians cannot say how long Musa would need to lie in the hospital bed.
As gunfire broke out that day, Musa wanted to go out to see what was happening. But his mother, Nishamoni, did not allow him.
Musa later asked his grandmother to go out with him to buy ice cream. When the situation apparently calmed, they climbed down the stairs from the fifth storey, into the garage where they were hit.
Maya was so panicked about sending Musa to hospital that she did not first notice that she had been hit, too. When they climbed up to the first floor, she fell unconscious.
She was taken to a hospital near by. Having been treated, Maya and her husband Mahbub Islam went to a relative鈥檚 house because the situation in the neighbourhood was tense.
Her condition worsened at midnight. She was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and she died in the morning.
Mostafizur with his father runs an electrical and electronics shop at Malibagh. He earns about Tk 25,000 a month. His wife used to earn Tk 15,000 a month by giving tuition.
鈥業 can鈥檛 run the business well. I need to stay close to Musa. My father has been so devastated. My wife stays with Musa in hospital. We鈥檙e distressed. We don鈥檛 have much money,鈥� Mostafizur said. He had to borrow Tk 300,000 for Musa鈥檚 treatment that was spent in July 19鈥揂ugust 5.
The government on August 28 said that about 1,000 people had died in student protests that peaked into a mass uprising and toppled the Awami League government on August 5.
