“I am living like a walking corpse. I want justice for my son’s killing.”
Rahima Akhter, mother of Md Yakub, made this tearful statement on Wednesday before the International Crimes Tribunal-1, led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, as she testified against those accused in the August 5 police shooting in Dhaka’s Chankharpul area during last year’s July-August mass student uprising.
Rahima recounted that her 35-year-old son Yakub, a delivery man in New Market, often joined student protests.
On August 5, he went to Chankharpul, where he was shot.
“The bullet entered one side of his stomach and came out the other, spilling his intestines,” she told the tribunal.
Initially, no one told her the truth. “They kept consoling me. I asked, ‘Why are you crying? Why won’t you let me cry?’ When my son’s body was brought on a stretcher, blood was dripping everywhere.”
At one point, the tribunal was showed video footage of Yakub’s bloodied body on a TV monitor, prompting Rahima to break down in loud sobs.
Through tears, she declared: “I am a mother who is living like a walking corpse. I want justice for my son’s killing. I demand the trial of Hasina, Quader, and all those who ordered the shooting.”
Wednesday’s hearing was led for the prosecution by Mizanul Islam, with the chief prosecutor Tajul Islam, other prosecution lawyers, and the defense present.
Earlier in the week, the tribunal heard from the father of slain protester Anas, as well as a college teacher and the father of another victim, 7th grader Sheikh Mehedi Hasan Junayed.
The case stems from the killing of six people in Chankharpul on August 5, 2024.
On July 14, 2025, the tribunal indicted eight accused, including former Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman, former Joint Commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty, former Additional Deputy Commissioner Shah Alam Md Akhtarul Islam, former Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Imrul, former Shahbagh Police Station Inspector Md Arshad Hossain, and constables Md Sujan Hossain, Imaz Hossain, and Md Nasirul Islam.
Four of them remain at large; the other four were brought in court on Wednesday.
The July-August 2024 uprising saw widespread allegations that the then Awami League government, along with party cadres and sections of the police and administration, committed mass killings and crimes against humanity to crush the movement. Trials for these alleged atrocities are now underway in two international crimes tribunals in Dhaka.
