‘Why is my father not talking to me anymore?’

Questions daughter of man killed in Nayapaltan clash

Mokbul’s wife and daughter at DMCH morgue. Photo: Shaheen Mollah/Star

When eight-year-old Mithila Akter saw her father’s body at Dhaka Medical College Hospital mortuary, she kept asking other family members, “Why is my father not talking to me anymore?”

Her father Mokbul Hossain was killed this afternoon during the clash between police and BNP men in the Nayapaltan area.

Mithila was peeping through the window bars to see her father’s body which was kept in the mortuary.

She looked shell-shocked as tears rolled down her cheeks.

“My father called me in the morning and asked whether I took my breakfast … Why did he stop talking to me?” asked the second grader.

While the little one was aching in silence most of the time, her mother Halima Begum was crying her eyes out over the death of her husband — the only source of income for the family living in Mirpur’s Bauniabadh area.

“Why did they kill my husband?” Halima was saying in front of the mortuary.

According to a BNP press release, Mokbul was a joint convener of Pallabi Ward 5 unit of Swechchhasebak Dal.

The Daily Star could not independently verify the claim.

Mokbul’s family said they were unaware of his political affiliation while the police officers were present in the hospital. However, when the cops left, the family members told reporters that Mokbul was a BNP activist.

“My husband used to make a living by doing Karchupi [beaded and metal embroidery work] … Who will now take care of us? said Halima.

Nasrin Begum, Halima’s elder sister, said Mokbul had taken Tk 1,000 from her and Tk 10,000 from another person to purchase materials for his work from the capital’s Mirpur-11 and the Chawkbazar areas today.

“We don’t know when he went to the BNP office?” she said, adding that they rushed to the hospital after seeing blood-smeared photos of Mokbul on TV and social media.

“We seek justice,” she cried.