Two years after July Uprising, Badsha lives on with scars, in neglect

For 17 years, Ruhul Amin Badsha has been the caretaker of the Cox’s Bazar district BNP office on Shaheed Sarani. He lives with his wife and three children in a small room behind the office and, since 2023, has run a small betel leaf stall in front of the building to support his family.

Twice during the July Uprising, Badsha was attacked. His family narrowly escaped with their lives, and his young daughter was seriously injured. Two years later, the physical wounds remain, but the emotional scars run deeper. Yet, he says, few remember what happened to him.

Recalling the night of 16 July 2024, Badsha said a group of 25 to 30 people chanting “Joy Bangla” stormed the BNP office, vandalising the building, looting property and firing shots. After attacking the nearby Niribili Hotel and Restaurant, owned by the family of current MP Lutfur Rahman Kajol, they returned to ransack his betel leaf stall.

Standing a short distance away, Badsha watched as the attackers looted his shop before beating him and one of his teenage employees with sticks. Journalists later rescued him and took him to the hospital.

The violence returned on 4 August, in what he describes as an even darker night. As clashes and gunfire engulfed Shaheed Sarani, an unidentified young man was shot near the Forest Department gate beside the BNP office. With no one else nearby, Badsha carried the wounded youth to the superintendent of police’s office, from where protesters rushed him to the hospital. The young man later died.

Hours later, shortly before 9pm, more than a hundred people arrived chanting slogans before setting the BNP office ablaze with petrol.

Inside the burning building were Badsha’s wife and their three children. Unable to reach them, he watched helplessly until journalists rescued them nearly 90 minutes later. His daughter had suffered a broken leg and has yet to fully recover. Badsha, too, still lives with pain in his leg from the assault.

Although a few BNP leaders later helped with medical expenses, Badsha says he has received no state support, as his name never appeared on the government’s list of those affected during the July movement.

He no longer expects compensation. His only wish, he says quietly, is that “no one should ever have to endure a night like that again. May everyone live safe and free.”