Social Welfare and Women and Children Affairs Adviser Sharmeen Murshid couldn't help being overcome with emotion on Monday, as she came across the splitting image of Mir Mugdho, who died in the anti-discrimination student movement, reports UNB.
The adviser called a press conference to mark the completion of their first month at the Secretariat on Monday afternoon.
Around 3:35 pm, a young man came from behind the adviser in the conference room and said, "I am Mugdho".
It would be impossible to deny from looking at the warm, friendly face, unless you were in the know. It was actually Mir Snigdho, the identical twin of Mir Mugdho, one of the most iconic martyrs of the July Movement that toppled an autocrat.
Hearing this, the adviser immediately got up from the chair and hugged him and became speechless for a moment. Later, she inquired about his family members.
The adviser then gave him her personal mobile number and asked to contact her for any problem. She also directed the officials of the ministry to speed up the work for which Snigdho had come.
Later in the press conference, Murshid said "We are committed to fulfilling the dreams of the children who fought during the student movement. We saw what extreme sacrifices these children have made."
Earlier on July 18, during the quota reform movement in Dhaka, Mugdho was killed in police firing.
While attending the protest, he was distributing water and biscuits among the protesters. He had also taken some injured to hospital on rickshaws earlier in the day.
Just before death, Mugdho was caught on camera distributing water among the protesters on his own initiative. His words in the video "Pani Lagbe? Pani?" ("Water, anyone? Water?") as he fights back the effects of tear gas, became one of the enduring rallying cries of the movement.
Not long after that video was shot, Mugdho received a bullet in the head, while resting on top of a road divider in the Azampur area of Uttara. Though his friend with whom he attended the protest rushed him to a hospital, Mugdho was declared dead by doctors there.
A hand injury had prevented Snigdho from attending the protest with his twin that day.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
