A few steps away from headshots: A TBS journo's account

I was with thousands of jubilant protesters at Mirpur 10 roundabout last afternoon. They had outnumbered the ruling party men a couple of hours back and were celebrating it.

The protesters were chanting slogans, and two of them were distributing what they called 'shadhinotar misti' (sweets of freedom), celebrating their take over of the spot.

A group of army men in jeeps and APCs was also there, not bothering about the protesters, who also seemed happy about the presence of the army. At around 5:30pm, the army left the spot.

Half an hour later, police started firing teargas canisters and sound grenades from the side of Mirpur-2. Students put up a barricade with a mobile toilet and kept holding their position.

Meanwhile, an army convoy was passing the intersection, with the officer politely asking the protesters over a megaphone to let them tough. The protesters complied and made a hole through the wall of people.

Right at that moment, all hell broke loose. Intermittent gunshots could be heard from a close proximity, and I was looking for the source around the roundabout. Protesters started running away, but most of them stayed.

Just 10 feet away from me, two men fell on the ground. They were hit by live bullets, not pellets. Protesters were in shock, but quickly gathered themselves and carried away the men to send them to hospitals.

I could only take a look at one of the men, who appeared dead with eyes partially open. There was a lot of blood, but it looked like a clean headshot.

Although bullets were flying all around, I decided to stay, and missed the opportunity to identify the men.

Protesters suspected that those were sniper bullets. They went on to discover two holes on the glass facade of a high-rise building next to the metro station, and started hurling brickbats at the building.

Indeed, police were nowhere near the Mirpur-10 roundabout, and the two men were in the middle of the crowd. A shot fired from the police's position in the west would have taken out someone else in the front. In fact, before and after these shots, I witnessed two young men being brought from the direction of Mirpur-2 – where the police were positioned – after getting shot. One of them was unconscious, if not dead. 

A young woman, who identified herself as a student of Lalmatia College, told me that one of the men, who was in his 40s, had been distributing water bottles to the protesters for free.

In one of the videos taken by me, he was seen chanting slogans just a few feet away from a passing army APC just some moments ago.