‘I recognised my son by his clothes’

Mother tells ICT how she found him among piles of bodies

A mother searched floor after floor of Dhaka Medical College Hospital for her son, Mohammad Ismail, after learning he had been shot during a protest in the July uprising. She eventually found him dead in a morgue crowded with 300 to 400 bodies piled on top of one another.

“I recognised my son by the clothes he was wearing,” Taslima Akter told International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday, breaking down in tears as she recounted finding his body.

Ismail was shot dead in Mohammadpur on July 19, according to her testimony in a crimes against humanity case against former Dhaka South City Corporation mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, former minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak and 26 others over the killings of nine people, including Ismail and another student.

Taslima said her son joined the movement near Allah Karim Mosque that day.

That evening, Ismail’s friend Kalu informed his aunt that he had been shot and was being taken to DMCH.

Taslima, with her mother and sister, left their home in Dhaka Udyan by rickshaw and reached the hospital around 10:00pm.

The emergency department was crowded with gunshot victims, both alive and dead. The family searched floor after floor but could not find Ismail.

A doctor later showed Taslima photographs on his mobile phone, and she recognised her son. He then took her to the morgue.

“There were 300 to 400 bodies. They were lying one on top of another,” she told the tribunal.

Taslima found Ismail among the bodies, with a bullet wound to his head.

She said hospital authorities told the family they had to wait for the officer-in-charge of their local police station before taking the body home. They received it the following day.

She also testified that hospital authorities obtained her signature on a statement saying she would not file a case over the killing.

The family performed Ismail’s last rites at Chhata Mosque before burying him at Azimpur graveyard.

“I want justice for the killing of my son,” she told the tribunal.