“He disgraced us, betrayed our social status and our hopes. I spent my life to make him a literate person. Everything has gone waste. I heard my son was shot dead for becoming a militant. I don’t want to see his face  anymore,” said Sohrab Ali, who works as a mason, before leaving for Dhaka at 8am yesterday to identify his son Abdullah, one of the nine militants killed in Kalyanpur in Dhaka on July 26. “I don’t want to even receive his body,” he added.
“It’s a failure on my part that I couldn’t guess that he was ruining himself,” lamented the father, his eyes brimming with tears, in Nawabganj yesterday. On the other hand, the villagers of Bhallabpur in Nawabganj
upazila of Dinajpur said they would allow his body to be buried there.
Abdullah’s parents had named him Motaleb Hossain when he was born on January 15, 1993, at Bhallabpur village in Nawabganj upazila of Dinajpur. After completing his primary education from Bhallabpur Government Primary School, Motaleb was sent to a madrasa in Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur.
“Motaleb was the fourth of my six children,” said his mother Moslema Begum. His parents later learnt that he replaced his original name with Abdullah.
“After staying in Hakimpur for several years, he went to Sapahar Aladi Madrasa in Sapahar upazila of Naogaon,” said Abul Kalam Azad, one of his elder brothers.
He later obtained admission to Deboir Kazirhat Alim Madrasa in Rupganj upazila of Narayanganj in 2008. He passed his Dakhil and Alim from there in 2010 and 2012, respectively, securing a grade point average (GPA) of 5.
“He was a meritorious student. We spent all our earnings to see him an educated person,” said his eldest brother Nurul Islam.  “We detected a sudden change in him after he shifted to Dhaka. He rarely visited us,” said his brother.
But Abdullah often called his elder brother over phone.
“He called me 10 days ago for the last time, saying that he would come home for Eid-Ul-Azha,” said Nurul Islam.
His brother was preparing to get a job in the Bangladesh Navy, he added.
“I sent him Tk. 50,000 a year ago,” said the eldest brother, adding that after that his brother did not ask for money again.
There have been several scuffles between Abdullah and local villagers over offering Munazat after the prayer at the local mosque, said the villagers, adding that he disliked the Munazat after prayers at the mosque.
Sohel Rana, one of his childhood friends, said they had detected a change in him. “He was religious-minded. He regularly offered prayers at the mosque. During his last visit, he got into scuffles several times over offering prayers at mosques,” he said.
“Offering Munazat at the mosque after prayers is not good,” Abu Taher, a local villager, quoted Abdullah as having said.
“He wanted to work at the local mosque several times, but we didn’t allow him,” he added.