A father’s search for his son ends in tragic death

Hasan Ahmed Bishal last spoke to his father Shahin Hawlader over phone on the night of August 25, when he and his fellow students were heading towards the Secretariat, which was surrounded by Ansar members.
Soon, a clash between the students and Ansar broke out, with some students trapped between the two groups.
Shahin, a driver of a rent-a-car service located near the Secretariat, must have known something was wrong.
He rushed to the Secretariat.
As he scanned the crowd for any sign of Hasan, the unthinkable happened — apparently mistaken for a student, the father was brutally beaten by Ansar members, Hasan said.
For nine agonising days, Shahin fought for his life at the intensive care unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He breathed his last around 7:00am today.
“My father went to find me, but Ansar members beat him brutally,” Hasan, who sat for the HSC exam from Kabi Nazrul Government College earlier this year, told The Daily Star.
“I want justice,” he said.
At least 40 people were injured in the clash at the Secretariat in Dhaka that night.
The incident took place when hundreds of students, many of them armed with sticks, marched towards the Secretariat where several hundred Ansar members were holding protests blocking the entrance of the key government headquarters.
The students termed the Ansar members as “agents of autocracy”.
Several conveners of the anti-discrimination student movement invited students to gather at the Raju Memorial Sculpture to march towards the Secretariat.
Hasan said he was involved in the student protests since the beginning of the movement in early July, and was doing relief work at the TSC that night, when the call came to march to the Secretariat.
“As I headed towards the Secretariat with other students, I spoke to my father for the last time,” he said.
“He was looking for me in front of the Secretariat. I was unaware that my father rushed there in search of me. After a long time, when I called my father’s phone, a student received the phone and said Ansar members beat my father up. The student told me that my father was immediately admitted to DMCH.”
Shahin was put on life support after a surgery.
Hasan’s fried Ramjan Hawlader said a video of Ansar members beating up a man went viral on social media following the clash and the victim in the video was Hasan’s father.
Sub-Inspector Sanaul Haque of Shahbagh Police Station said the body was handed over to the family without autopsy upon their request.