Until 13 July, the movement for quota reform in civil service jobs was limited largely to protesting students and job seekers. It rapidly transcended those limitations on 14 July when then prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, responded to the protests by asking whether the grandchildren of freedom fighters would get quotas of the grandchildren of Razakars (collaborators of the Pakistan Army's slaughter of Bangladeshis in 1971).
Once the students dared to protest Hasina's words by using that same word against her in slogans, the Chhatra League (BCL), Awami League's student front, ruthlessly attacked them the following day.
All this had ramped up the temperature and the volatility across the country.
All that went before, however, would pale in comparison to what transpired on 16 July.
On that fateful Tuesday, the air in Rangpur trembled with the cries of students demanding reforms in government job quotas and protesting the PM's disregard. The streets, alive with their fervour, turned tragic when police and BCL members clashed with the protesters.
Among them stood Abu Sayed, a student of Begum Rokeya University, whose final moments would etch his name into the heart of a nation.
In the early afternoon, as the protest swelled outside his university, police unleashed tear gas and charged the protesters with batons, forcing many students to retreat. But Abu Sayed stood firm, his spirit unyielding. He stretched out his arms, chest bared, facing the barrage.
At 2:17 PM, the first gunshot struck him, followed by two more in quick succession. Within moments, he crumpled to the ground. By 2:18 PM, he was rushed to Rangpur Medical College Hospital, blood was reportedly streaming from his nose, his body riddled with shotgun wounds.
At 3:05 PM, doctors reported him dead.
The government at the time used all sorts of excuses to distance itself, such as he was hit by brickbats from fellow protesters, or that he died due to a delay in medical treatment, or that police police used rubber bullets.
But a recent investigation by Drik Picture Library and Forensic Architecture showed that Sayed was hit at close range by police firing live rounds and that he was promptly taken to the hospital.
Little did the police know that the moment the bullet struck his bare chest, he joined the ranks of martyrs, like Asad in 1969 and Noor Hossain in the 1990s, all of whom died opposing autocracy.
The haunting images of Sayed, with his bare chest outstretched in defiance, and the expression of shock on his face when the first bullet hit, spread like an inferno across the nation.
The unrest began a day earlier, on July 15, when Chhatra League attacked protesters at Dhaka and Jahangirnagar Universities. In response, students across the country rallied on July 16, blocking roads and highways in cities like Mymensingh, Bogura, Barisal, Rajshahi, and Rangpur. Clashes erupted as the Chhatra League and police confronted the protesters with force.
In Dhaka, students from private universities like BRAC and East West, joined by school and college students, blocked major roads.
Across the nation, at least six lives were reported lost that day, including in Chattogram, where three more—Wasim Akram, Foysal Ahmed, and Mohammad Faruk—fell during clashes, and in Dhaka, where two others, Shahjahan and Sobuj Ali, were killed in attacks by Chhatra League.
As the day wore on, the protests grew fiercer.
At Jahangirnagar University, students expelled BCL members from campus and blocked the Dhaka-Aricha highway. By afternoon, the government deployed the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Dhaka, Rajshahi, Bogura, and Chittagong to quell the unrest. Schools and colleges were shut indefinitely, and HSC exams were postponed for an indefinite period.
That evening, students at Dhaka University announced new action plans, while coordinators of the anti-discrimination movement, like Hasnat Abdullah, condemned the violence as "state-sponsored oppression". Asif Mahmud, another leader, called for a coffin procession and memorial prayer at Dhaka University the next day.
At a press conference, AL's General Secretary Obaidul Quader repeated his vow to take "appropriate action" against those causing public suffering, signalling a potential crackdown.
Faced with this looming crackdown on civilians and students, some BCL leaders resigned in protest.
Meanwhile, BNP's Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir urged the public and political parties to stand in solidarity with the students, and their student wing, Chhatra Dal, pledged its support.
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International South Asia, Transparency International Bangladesh, and others, condemned the killings. Over 114 prominent citizens issued a joint statement denouncing the violence against the students, amplifying the call for justice.
Abu Sayed's outstretched arms became more than a moment. It became a symbol of defiance, a beacon for a generation's fight against injustice, forever woven into the story of the July Uprising.
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