Desk Report,
\Kishore Ishmam laughed on his deathbed after hearing about Hasina’s downfall
Mother Shaheda Begum was devastated when she heard that her son had been shot. Her son, Md. Ishmamul Haque Chowdhury, worked in a jewelry store in Dhaka. Despite her mother’s prohibition, he got involved in the student-public movement. On the morning of August 5 last year, he joined the student-public procession from Chawkbazar in Dhaka towards Shahbagh, demanding the resignation of Sheikh Hasina. When the procession reached Chankharpul area, the police opened fire. It was about 12 noon. There, 17-year-old Ishmam fell to the ground with a bullet wound in the stomach.
Kishore Ishmam laughed on his deathbed after hearing about Hasina’s downfall
Shaheda Begum learned about her son’s shooting immediately after the incident. However, she could not travel from Lohagara in Chittagong to Dhaka because the transportation was closed that day. Shaheda reached Dhaka the next day, August 6. And Ishmam died a day later. In his last moments, he was writhing in severe pain. But after hearing that Sheikh Hasina had fallen, she forgot all the pain and smiled happily even in that situation. Today, on the one-year anniversary of her son’s death, mother Shaheda Begum remembers only these things.
Yesterday, Wednesday afternoon, Shaheda Begum was sitting at her father’s house in Tju Munshirpara, Amirabad, Lohagara, and was talking to him. She had to stop repeatedly while talking about her son. Sometimes she was wiping her eyes, and sometimes she was breaking down in tears.
Ishmam was the eldest of the three brothers in the family. They had a small tin shed hut on just one hundred acres of land in Darjipara, Amirabad, Lohagara. Ishmam’s father Nurul Haque died in 2017. He was a third-grade student at the time. He could not study beyond the fifth grade due to poverty. In 2023, he moved to Dhaka in search of a job. Later, he took a job at a jewelry shop in Chawkbazar with a monthly salary of four thousand taka. At the end of the month, he would send a large part of this money to his mother.
Shaheda Begum said that Ishmam actively participated in the movement throughout the entire period of the mass uprising last year. He also went to the procession on the morning of August 5. He was shot during the procession. Shaheda said with tears in her eyes, “I used to tell my son repeatedly, “Dad, you are still young. You don’t know all the places in Dhaka. Don’t leave your house or shop.” But he wouldn’t listen. He would tell me, nothing will happen. Who will go to the procession if we don’t go?”
Ishmam’s family members currently live in their grandparents’ house in Taju Munsirpara, Amirabad, upazila. Family members said that they received three lakh taka from the upazila administration to renovate the house. However, the work on the house has not been completed with that. At least five lakh taka is needed to make it habitable. The Facebook ID named Md. Ishmamul Haque Chowdhury is still active. It contains information about Ishmam’s regular participation in the movement. On July 18, he wrote, “The country where Abu Sayedas are born, that country will not lose. Have courage. He created resistance again.’ In another post on July 31, he wrote, ‘Mago, they want to take away my verbal language. They shackle my hands and feet with their words.’
Ishmamul’s last post before his death was on August 4. There he wrote, ‘Tomorrow at 10:30 am, everyone come to Shaheed Minar. We have to roar together.’
Ishmamul’s elder brother Muhibul Haque told Prothom Alo, ‘He was young, but the country was always on his mind. You can tell by looking at his Facebook posts. He is no more now, but we want his memory to be preserved. The road in our village should be renovated. At least one important structure in Lohagara should be named after Ishmamul Haque.’
