‘How many bullets does it take to kill a person, sir?’

Moynal Hossain, a sub-inspector at Razarbagh Police Lines, and his wife were frantically running from one room to another at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, looking for their son Imam Hossain Tayeem, 17, yesterday.
“Do you know, where we can find this boy?” the couple asked everyone, showing a photograph of Tayeem.
However, even after looking for him for two hours since 5:00pm, they could not find his name on the list of the injured or deceased.
Seeing the photograph, a journalist suggested that Moynal search the emergency mortuary. The tensed father immediately took off in that direction, and found Tayeem’s lifeless body there around 7:00pm.
Shell-shocked, Moynal froze for a moment. His wife collapsed on the floor, wailing, “Oh almighty, who took my son? Why did you go outside without telling us, my son?”
Tayeem, a college student in Narayanganj, had left his home around 11:00am yesterday to join  an agitation as part of the quota reform protests at Rayerbagh of Jatrabari, which has been a flashpoint of violent clashes for the past three days.
About an hour later, his parents got a phone call that said Tayeem was shot and being taken to DMCH.
“My youngest son had been protesting for quota reforms since the beginning. Yesterday too, he went out to the streets, defying my instruction to stay home amid the curfew,” said Moynal.
After finding Tayeem’s body, Moynal was heard talking to someone over phone, “Sir, my son is dead. His chest was torn apart by bullets [pellets]. Sir, my son is no more.”
The aggrieved father asked, “How many bullets does it take to kill a person, sir?”
The Daily Star could not verify who was on the other side of the phone.