It was around 2:30 in the afternoon. In the Jatrabari area of the capital, police had opened fire indiscriminately at students and ordinary people. Overwhelmed by the constant bombardment, the protesting students became frightened and could no longer hold their ground.
At that moment, one of them raised both hands and stepped into the middle of the highway to speak with the police. That was when he was shot in the head. Although he tried to keep his balance for the moment, he collapsed in the middle of the road. Blood drenched the street.
This July fighter's name is Kajol Mia. He told Stream, "I was trying to unite the protesters. At the same time, I was asking the police why they were shooting at students like this. While speaking to a police officer, another officer standing in the row behind shot me. I didn't know, I didn't believe that our brothers in the police could fire like that. I think there were foreign agents who carried out the shooting this way."
After Kajal fell to the ground, fellow protestors thought he was no longer alive. He was still breathing, but had completely lost consciousness. He was taken to a hospital in Dhaka's Matuail area.
After the National Institute of Neuroscience and other hospitals conducted surgeries in stages, doctors advised him to go abroad for better treatment. Then, with the mediation of the interim government, he was sent to Bangkok.
He has been undergoing treatment for several months at Vejthani Hospital.
Kajol spoke to Stream virtually from there. When asked what his intentions were when he raised his hands in the middle of the road, Kajol said, "I saw the police launching an aggressive attack on the protestors. I was scared out of my wits, thinking what I should do. The other students who were present also got scared, nobody could pull themselves together. That's why the losses kept mounting.
"The number of injured piled up by the minute. What was going through my mind then was, if I could just help tidy them up a little, maybe fewer lives would be lost. So I was trying to hold the students back. I stepped forward and tried to stop them, telling them, 'Wait, don't attack'. At that moment, I made eye contact with one of the police officers, and raising my hands, I spoke to him."
Kajal didn't know Sheikh Hasina had fled the country by then. He went ahead to speak with the police. He told the police officer, "Why are you firing at us? We haven't even said anything to you. Sheikh Hasina has probably fled by now. Why are you shooting at the students?"
Kajol was a student of the English department at Jahangirnagar University. After completing his studies, he lived in a rented house in the Gerua area near the campus.
When the anti-discrimination student movement began last July, he joined the protests alongside students at Jahangirnagar University. Until July 31, he remained actively involved in various programmes there.
Kajol's first wedding anniversary was on August 1 last year. To celebrate the occasion, he went to his elder brother Rubel Hasan's home in Narayanganj. Three days later, on 5 August, Kajol set out to join the anti-discrimination student movement's "March to Dhaka" programme.
As he was leaving his brother's house, he told his wife, Synthiya Akter Nishi, "In times like these, one can't just sit around at home. I'm going to the March to Dhaka, nothing will happen to me. I'll be back, don't worry."
Kajal regained consciousness 15 days after he was wounded.
"After regaining consciousness, I saw my wife talking to me. She was saying, 'If you don't get better, who is going to take care of your mother?' My mother has a mental illness. Hearing my wife speak, I came to my senses for the first time. I started crying," he said.
He added, "Everyone thought I was no longer alive. Thanks to Allah that he kept me alive. I am well now."
He also expressed gratitude to the interim government. If everything falls into place, Kajal mentioned that he plans to return to the country on the 15th or 16th of this month.
Expressing his indebtedness to his wife, Cynthia, Kajal said, "Allah truly sent her (Cynthia) as a blessing. She is a gift from Allah to me. The role she has played during this difficult time is beyond words. I was injured just after we had barely celebrated our first wedding anniversary, in a fist-fight with death. But she fought even harder than I did during that time. I was unconscious due to my injuries and completely unaware of anything, but she endured everything. Our second wedding anniversary was on August 1. We are still in the hospital, abroad. She has been taking care of me for an entire year."
Kajal also expressed his gratitude to his elder brother, Rubel, and his younger brother, Safal. He said, "In the early days of the movement, I used to have discussions with my younger brother Sajal. Sajal would say that what Sheikh Hasina is doing is not right. She deserves to be punished. I told Sajal, 'This time round, Sheikh Hasina is making such a mistake that if students' blood is shed once on the streets, her time is over.' Just as I was saying that, it all began, and Sheikh Hasina fled the country."
Kajal's home district is in Gopalganj. He was involved in student politics with the Chhatra League on campus and served as the vice-president of the university unit of the Chhatra League. However, he was expelled from the party after being labelled a Shibir loyalist.
Regarding this, Kajal said, "Because I'm from Gopalganj, from a young age, things like the boat symbol, Chhatra League, and Bangabandhu were ingrained in me. I used to genuinely like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which prompted me to get involved in Chhatra League politics at the university.
"Later, I realised that no ideals or principles of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were left within the Chhatra League. They had no semblance of ethics or morals in them. The organisation runs on corruption, nepotism, extortion, those kinds of things. I was protesting against all that.
"At the same time, the girl I loved, her family didn't accept the fact that I was involved with the Chhatra League. That hurt me, and eventually I started praying and practising my faith. Because of all this, the Chhatra League labelled me as a member of Shibir."
When he was relieved of his position amid those circumstances, Kajal had said, "You are committing an injustice, and by removing me, you've done even greater misdeed. One day justice will be served, right here at Jahangirnagar."
Speaking to Stream, Kajal said, "Justice was served. While I was still on campus, they were driven out of the campus and from the dormitories."
Kajal joined the movement with the hope of seeing a country where people would be valued based on justice and merit.
"The reasons that compelled me to join the movement, none of those exist in today's Bangladesh. I don't know if there will ever be or not in the future. Now it seems that I was hoping for something impossible, that's just not attainable in Bangladesh. Overall, I'm disappointed. In reality, the interim government has failed. They couldn't implement any of their agendas. I'm deeply concerned about what lies ahead for Bangladesh."
Kajal Mia's hope is that the right people are placed in the right positions.
"When unqualified people are put in positions of responsibility, they try to take over the place. They oppress and do injustice. They suppress what's right. They value the seat of power more than anything else, which leads to a decline in ethics and moral values."
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