Photo she hides from daughter

Shamsunnahar Nupur always tries to hide a framed photograph of her husband Jahangir.

It's because every time their little daughter sees it, she starts asking questions about her father. Nupur has no answer.

“What should I tell her? Whenever she sees it, she asks 'where is my father?' and 'when would he come back?'... Sometimes, she keeps insisting on bringing him back... I can't give her any answers,” said the 24-year-old mother as she tries to hide her tears.

Jahangir Alam, driver of Jubo League activist Moniruzzaman Swapan, was among the seven men who were abducted and killed in Narayanganj over three years ago. Their bodies were found floating in the Shitalakkhya a few days after the abduction.

Nupur, who is from Kadamtali area of the district's Siddhirganj, and Jahangir were married just 10 months before the incident.  They were a happy couple and their happiness increased many fold when Nupur said she was expecting a baby.

But that happiness was short-lived.

Jahangir started to work as Swapan's driver when Nupur was eight-month pregnant. On April 27, 2014, Jahangir was driving a car which had Narayanganj City Corporation councillor Nazrul Islam and his three associates in it. The five men and two others, who were travelling in another car, were kidnapped on that day.

The murderers cut the victims' bellies and then tied the bodies to sacks full of bricks before throwing them into the Shitalakkhya. The victims were blindfolded, and their hands and legs were tied with ropes, said police.

Jahangir, who was around 30, was buried a day after his body was recovered on April 30.

"Losing him this way was not even in my nightmares. When I was pregnant, we dreamt that we would raise our baby -- be it a boy or girl -- together. But my life is absolutely shattered,” Nupur said holding her baby, Roja, in her arms in a small room on August 8.

Roja, who is little over three, was born two months after her father's murder. Nupur and Roja live in Nurpur's father-in-law's house in Narayanganj. 

"She [Roja] still does not seem to realise that her father is no more. What would I tell her when she would grow up?,” asks the mother.

Two years ago, Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy gave Nupur a temporary job at the corporation with a monthly salary of Tk 6,000. But making ends meet with the money has been a constant struggle for the mother. Nupur is now waiting for her permanent appointment.

"My daughter asks for many things and I try to fulfil her demands with my small income. But it is very difficult to run a family with this amount.

"My life will go on anyway, but what about my child? What will happen to her education?"

Expressing her gratitude to Ivy, Nupur said the seven murders had devastated the seven families but “I hope the government would stand by us”.

As the High Court is set to deliver its verdict on the death references and appeals in the sensational case today, Nupur said, "I just hope that the high court would uphold the judgment of the lower court. I want this case to come to an end. I demand capital punishment to those who killed my husband and the others in such a brutal manner.”

She also said there were rumours that the killers, especially main culprit Nur Hossain, might get off the hook.

"If they are acquitted, people would lose faith in law. At least, I would not have any faith in it."