'You cannot cry, or we'll make the body disappear': July martyr's mother recounts threat at ICT

A mother of a July uprising martyr has told the International Crimes Tribunal-1 today that an Awami League supporter threatened her not to cry after she received the body of her 14-year-old son, warning that they would "make the body disappear" otherwise.

"An Awami League supporter told me, 'You have got the body. You cannot cry, otherwise we will make the body disappear'," Kulsum Begum told the tribunal, recalling the aftermath of her son Emon's death.

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She was testifying as a prosecution witness in the crimes against humanity case against former ministers Qamrul Islam and Rashed Khan Menon over the killing of 23 people in Rampura during the July uprising.

On July 19, 2024, after witnessing violence and the death of her daughter's brother-in-law, Kulsum had asked Emon not to step out once the curfew was imposed. Emon, however, showed her a video of July uprising victim Yamin and asked, "You see how boys my age are being killed. Why shouldn't I join the movement?"

The next day, he left home with his friends Naim and Shaheen for Tetultala, where he was shot dead near Tetultala intersection in Badda around 4:30pm.

The family learnt of the shooting after Emon's friend Shaheen informed them.

"My husband, my elder son Rajib, and I went to the Tetultala intersection near MZ Hospital. On the way, I saw bullets being fired from all directions, even from above," Kulsum said in her testimony.

On arrival, she found Emon lying unconscious in a pool of blood and lost consciousness herself at the sight of her son. On regaining consciousness, she touched his head and found a small hole at the back of his skull. The skin on his left cheek was hanging "like a rat hole", and there was also a bullet injury on his chest, she said.

Three people later brought Emon's body home by rickshaw. It was then that the Awami League supporter issued the threat against her mourning.

Rajib first went to a mosque to arrange a bier for the burial but was turned away. He secured one at another mosque, where people also helped wash the body.

After funeral prayers, the family set off for their village home in Bhola by ambulance around 11pm. Kulsum said gunfire continued through the journey, and Awami League activists and law enforcement personnel stopped them at three separate points in an attempt to prevent them from taking the body away. They were allowed to proceed only after she pleaded with them.

The family reached their village home around 8:30am on July 21 and buried Emon in the family graveyard.

In her testimony, Kulsum held then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, then Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, Rashed Khan Menon, and Qamrul Islam responsible for her son's killing.

She broke down in tears as she concluded her testimony, saying: "If there had been no curfew on July 19, my son would still be alive. I want justice for my son's killing."