Highway blocked in Cumilla demanding justice for Apratim’s murder
Collected Photo
The Dhaka Chattogram Highway was blocked in Cumilla on Sunday demanding justice for Ishayat Shahriar Apratim, son of Dr Nahida Begum, an associate professor of the Department of Bangla at Cumilla University, who was killed.
Students of Cumilla University blocked the highway in the Kotbari Bishwaroad area around 11 am on Sunday.
Earlier around 10 am, Apratim’s first funeral prayer was held at the university’s Central Mosque. Standing during the funeral prayer, Apratim’s father K M Firoz Shahriar said in an emotional voice, “I have only one son. He grew up in Cumilla’s weather and under Cumilla’s sky with everyone’s love and affection. Everyone please prays for him. May Allah grant him a place in heaven.”
After the funeral prayer, hundreds of students marched from the campus to the highway. They then blocked the highway. Traffic on both sides of the road came to a halt.
A student taking part in the blockade said, “We have come here today demanding justice for Apratim’s murder. No one is safe in Cumilla city. We have come here demanding security for the people of Cumilla city.”
Another student said, “We want a peaceful Cumilla. We do not want any kind of terrorism, mugging or teenage gangs here.”
Anisul Haque, officer in charge of Cumilla’s Mainamati Highway Police Station, told Agamir Somoy that students had blocked the road a short while earlier. Police were being sent to the scene to talk to them.
Apratim, a seventh-grade student of Cumilla Border Guard Public School, had been missing since Friday afternoon. Around 1 pm on Saturday, locals found his body lying in a hilly area in the Sananda area near Cumilla University.
Family members said Apratim left home on foot around 3 p.m. Friday. He did not return home afterward. After searching for him in various places without finding him, his father K M Firoz Shahriar filed a general diary with Sadar South Police Station.
K M Firoz Shahriar said Apratim had lunch with his family after Friday prayers. Later, he told them he was going outside with friends to take pictures with an iPhone. But he never returned home. In a tearful voice, he said, “Perhaps the iPhone itself was the reason for his death.”
Police have detained three people on suspicion of involvement in the child’s murder. On Saturday night, Sadar South Police Station Officer in Charge Mohammad Rakibul Islam said the detainees were Tuhin, Anas and Fahim.
Cumilla Police Superintendent Md Anisuzzaman said a total of four people have been identified including the three detainees over allegations of involvement in the murder.
