Shocking end of a dreamer’s story

Buet student Fardin Noor Parash was supposed to fly to Spain to participate in the World Debate Championship next month and had just gotten his passport to go there.

But locals in Siddhirganj, Narayanganj, found his body floating in the Shitalakkhya on Monday evening, two days after he went missing.

The 23-year-old student of civil engineering left home in the Konabari area of the capital on Friday afternoon, telling his parents that he would return by lunchtime the next day after a session exam at the university.

But someone from the university called his father, Kazi Nuruddin, 61, on Saturday and said Fardin was absent at the exam. Nuruddin then found that his son’s phone was switched off and started contacting his friends.

Nuruddin, a journalist,  learnt that his son was seen in Rampura with a woman his age on Saturday and filed a general diary with Rampura Police Station in connection with his son’s disappearance.

Sheikh Farhad, resident medical officer at Narayanganj General Hospital, told reporters yesterday that there were signs that Fardin was “physically tortured” before his death.

There were injury marks on his head, chest and different other parts of his body, he added.

The exact cause of death will be known after experts submit the viscera report, he said, adding that it was almost certain that it was a homicide.

A pall of gloom fell on Buet campus around 2:00pm, when Nuruddin reached there with his son’s body.

Hundreds of mourners formed a human chain in front of Buet Shaheed Minar after a namaz-e-janaza and demanded justice.

The grieving father said, “I will never get my son back. But I want justice.”

Fardin’s phone, wallet, and watch were found with the body, he said, adding that nothing had gone missing. “To my knowledge, our son had no enemies. I don’t think I have any enemies either,” he said.

“The country is now digital. I want to see how digital it is. I want to see whether there is any video footage of places where he went. Those who were in contact with Fardin can be identified by cell phone records.

“They killed my son and killed our dreams. No parent should ever have to bury their child.”

Fardin was buried at a graveyard near his ancestral home in Delpara Nayamati of Narayanganj.

Inspector Hafizur Rahman of Siddhirganj Police Station said Fardin’s family has yet to decide whether to file a case.

[A correspondent from Narayanganj and our DU correspondent contributed to this report]