Mohammad Mubin, now 20, moved to Dhaka after his father’s death in 2024 to work as a shop assistant. His home in Shariatpur is some 86 kilometres away. One of his brothers also joined him, as they struggled to support their family back home, including a sick mother and disabled elder brother.

Today, he is completely blind — recognising people only by the sound of their voices and tracing walls with his hands to move around.

On July 18, 2024, during a break from work, he joined a protest linked to the student-led anti-discrimination protest against government job quotas, which was sweeping the country at that time. He was in the front row of the march. Moments later, he was struck in the head by a bullet.

“It felt like someone had hit me hard on the head with a hammer. The world went dark,” Mubin recalls.

Bystanders rushed him to a hospital. Doctors performed eight surgeries to treat his injuries and remove the bullet. “I never imagined I would go blind,” he tells Eos.

Despite extensive treatment, his sight never returned. He is still living with the consequences of that day’s shooting.

Two years after the protests that toppled Sheikh Hasina, the youngsters who participated in 2024’s ‘July Uprising’ are still living with the consequences — some in parliament, some in classrooms and some in permanent darkness…

Two years after the protests that toppled Sheikh Hasina, the youngsters who participated in 2024’s ‘July Uprising’ are still living with the consequences — some in parliament, some in classrooms and some in permanent darkness…

Mubin survived. Mahmudur Rahman Saikat, 19, did not. He was shot dead by police in Mohammadpur, Dhaka, on July 19, 2024, during the student-led nationwide movement, now known as the July........

© Dawn (Magazines)