When Noshin and Joya escaped with their lives, five times in six hours
In the span of six hours, the Chhatra League had threatened to slaughter them, a policeman had loaded a revolver in front of them, an angry mob had crashed into the Tejgaon police station while they were still detained; they were engulfed in smoke as the mob set fire, and finally, the fateful fall
When Noshin Jahin Tua first opened her eyes after the fall from the four-storey building, she thought, "Am I dead? No. Then is this a slow death, life will leave my body slowly," she recalled thinking on 5 August.
On 19 August, Noshin was sitting on her bed in Mirpur with a brace around her waist. It has been a week since she returned home from the hospital. She is recovering from a fractured rib and hip bone. "We are lucky," reiterated her mother and aunt.
The fall from the Tejgaon Thana was Noshin's fifth time facing a threat to her life in one day, on 5 August, along with her friend Joya Roy. In the span of six hours, the Chhatra League had threatened to slaughter them, a policeman had loaded a revolver in front of them, an angry mob had crashed into the Tejgaon police station while they were still detained; they were engulfed in smoke as the mob set fire, and finally, the fateful fall.
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Nonetheless, they both lived to tell the tale.
Noshin works as a fashion designer in the capital. She graduated from BGMEA University of Fashion & Technology (BUFT) five years ago. Joya, also a BUFT graduate, used to work at the same fashion house as Noshin, but recently they parted ways – but only as colleagues.
In July, they heard about a junior BUFT student, Selim, who was at a protest rally, "standing by really, not participating," said Joya. Selim was shot in the head by the police in late July around the Badda area.
"It did something to me. How can he be shot so mercilessly?," said Noshin.
Joya recounts the Chhatra League as the most terrifying part of their day. "We were called every name in the book, expletives that I cannot repeat, hair pulled, tossed around — when they could not prove us as students (because no student IDs) and because we said we were fashion designers, we became, to them, Tareq Zia's designer!" recalled Joya. Many took Noshin and Joya's photos and also filmed them being physically harassed and mercilessly manhandled.
On 4 August, Selim — who was clinically dead for nearly 10 days, a fresh graduate and newly-wed with a pregnant wife – passed away from his injuries. This death cemented the two women's determination. They decided to join the Long March the following day at Shahbagh, whatever was to come, they would go out.
Noshin penned a letter for her family, left it behind on the dining table and took off around 10:30 am. She met her friend Joya – who had no trouble leaving behind an empty apartment in Uttara – around the corner from Noshin's house in Mirpur. And off they went on a rickshaw.
Every street and road was brimming with Army presence.
They changed rickshaws and walked on foot often to bypass the movement restriction. "Once, we were stopped by the Army. I was scared that they would ask me to check the contents of my bag. I really had nothing, just a red handkerchief [in solidarity with the students] and a large pair of scissors — for self-defence."
The Army did not ask and let them pass.
They decided, at one point, to head straight to Shaheed Minar. "But everywhere was blocked," Noshin remembered. They managed to reach the Mohakhali flyover bridge by rickshaw and there they met two male university students also trying to reach Shaheed Minar.
Nowhsin's phone kept ringing non-stop. On the other end of the line was a frantic family looking for her. Her aunt found the letter around 11 am and informed the household — everyone was in disarray.
"We lost a family member [Noshin's maternal uncle] three years ago in August," Noshin's mother told TBS. He was only 35 years old when he died a suspicious death, and it decimated the family's collective strength. But Noshin still went out to join in the "fight."
First, escape from Chhatra League's claws
Now four in number, they took a detour by walking by the Mohakhali railway under the expressway.
However, a group of men surrounded them. "The suddenness took us by surprise," said Noshin. Then immediately, Noshin pulled out the ringing phone from her bag, received the call and said "Chhatra League men attacked us" – but before she could say anything more, her phone was snatched away. And never to be held again that day.
This happened around 12:30 pm.
They were taken to a "makeshift" Awami League office nearby. "I remember seeing large photos of Hasina and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," recalled Nowhsin. There were "maybe 40 men already. And three women," said Noshin. Later, on a phone call, Joya said, "We were surrounded by over 100 of these men."
Joya recounts the Chhatra League as the most terrifying part of their day.
"We were called every name in the book, expletives that I cannot repeat, hair pulled, tossed around — when they could not prove us as students (because no student IDs) and because we said we were fashion designers, we became, to them, Tareq Zia's designer!" recalled Joya.
Many took Noshin and Joya's photos and also filmed them being physically harassed and mercilessly manhandled.
Around 10-12 students were already there, picked up and brought in by Chhatra League – and traumatised. "We were the only women [on the protestors side]," Noshin said, adding, "They were hyper-focused on us."
Among the only three Chhatra League women, "At one point, one of them in hijab, left in protest. The other two were likely in their 40s, dressed like the average Bangladeshi in salwar kameez," Noshin recalled.
Although there were chairs and benches, Joya said, "We were made to sit on the floor. And they were brandishing rods, bamboo sticks and even daa [chopper]," said Joya.
"We will slaughter you here! [Chhatra League said]" remembered Noshin, adding, "Joya apa cried out then."
In this chaos, Noshin also barked back to them that her family is Awami League-affiliated — but no heed was paid. And once the red handkerchief and scissors were pulled out of Noshin's bag "by old men – like in their 40s or beyond" — the Chhatra League there was fully convinced that the two women were the enemy.
In this chaos of harassment and abuse, uniformed police stepped inside the pandal. "They sounded like they were friends," said Noshin. At the end of the friends' spat, it was decided everyone would be taken to the police station — but which one was never mentioned. At the back of the small police car, students, including Noshin and Joya sat with the students and Chhatra Leaguers — while a female Leaguer held Noshin's wrist tightly.
"Through and through, she held on. I told her to let go, because where would I run to anyway?"
Death by a revolver or a mob?
At Tejgaon police station, Noshin went in first and stood in front of the SI officer alongside others. She noticed all their phones displayed on the SI officer's table. "My mother was still calling. I saw her popping up on my screen," she said, adding, "I asked repeatedly if I could just make one phone call. But they never listened —- even till the very end, I couldn't make a call."
Noshin would shift her weight every 10 minutes in her Mirupur bedroom. Her half-sitting position looked strained. But she opted to sit up for the interview.
"When we were taken into the police station [with Chhatra League members], the fear was that we would fall victim to enforced disappearance. I mean really, who would have known what," Joya told The Business Standard over the phone.
"Noshin's family did not know of our whereabouts. And my family had no idea," she added. Joya's family of two parents and a younger brother were, at the time, in their hometown in Thakurgaon.
After the police questioning and a lot of back and forth, the two women were locked in a room at the police station. Arbitrarily, police officers and constables visited the room. "We begged them for a phone call but were denied. Around 2 pm – a female police officer walked in to say "Prime Minister Hasina has fled!"
This shifted the mood. The police became polite, apparently concerned for the duo's safety in this hour of chaos. However, when the police were asked then, again, for a phone call and to let them go, the request was denied.
"At one point, two police officers walked in. One of them took out a revolver and started to load the gun," recalled Noshin. By then the noise had already begun, scores of people passing by, pelting stones at the station and mayhem.
The details sounded fresh, and the rawness of the emotions lingered in the Mirpur bedroom.
This is the point when Noshin had a breakdown. "I believed they would kill us now [police by a loaded revolver]!" she said, "and I went berserk. I was going under the table, howling. Coming out from under the table and…I can't tell you the state I was in."
The people breached the police station. The vandalism, the chaos, the pelting of stones — everything mushed into a loud noise "Like nothing we heard before," said Noshin.
Panic set in as the sound of the chaos overpowered everything else.
They begged the police — who were already on foot to escape – to let them go. They were afraid of the out-of-control mob downstairs. What if they got mistakenly killed by the people?
Falling from fire
The police had escaped – leaving behind their uniforms – from the rooftop by climbing down a rope — the same kind we see AC repair men or painters use for buildings around the capital, bamboo strung with ropes.
In the chaos, Joya and Noshin ran out of the locked room. They went to the SI officer's room to find their phones, but it was not there. In the mad rush of people, they were too afraid to make their way downstairs. Suddenly, a female police officer grabbed them and led them to the rooftop.
"We were on the rooftop, crying out for help. The people in the surrounding buildings had their phones out recording us, while people on the ground kept saying, 'Get down, the building is on fire'," recounted Joya, adding "no one told us that not the building but only the police cars in front were set ablaze."
The two women in desperation frantically screamed for help, "I think this lasted about 30 minutes, maybe," said Joya. They managed to convince an onlooker in one of the buildings to call Noshin's family. "I screamed out the number," she said.
"We heard from a stranger: your daughter is on Tejgaon thana rooftop," said Noshin's mother. This happened around 3:30 pm on 5 August.
The smoke from the fire got so thick that Noshin and Joya could not see each other standing two feet apart. "Death by inhalation is also a possibility, I thought," said Noshin. And in a matter of seconds, they decided they too would climb down the rope.
Joya asked Noshin to go first, perhaps an age thing, given how she's older than her. Noshin refused. Joya made it to the bottom, safe. She landed in the thick of chaos and heat from the four vehicles set ablaze.
The rope had been kept in place all this time with heavy sacks that were lying on the roof. By the time it was Noshin's turn, the bags had moved. "At one point, my foot slipped. I was there hanging for my [dear] life," she said, "and then everything fell!"
Noshin credits two street kids for saving her life. They came to lift Noshin but she said no, scared that she had broken bones and being moved carelessly would make it worse. She kept saying no.
"But they kept saying we won't leave you here. We won't leave you behind like this," said Noshin. They picked her up. And carried her.
"If it wasn't for them I would have not made it."
They turned to the back wall with others for a safe exit. They were held up, then pulled up and over a high wall to safety, by the people.
"When our feet landed on the ground, they asked — if we were police or not!" exclaimed Joya, "We had to convince them of our identity even in that state."
Hospitals and a family reunion followed, and so did Noshin's nightmares. "She could not sleep for at least the first three nights," said her mother, "she would scream out that someone is torching the hospital!"
"We went mad. When she said Chhatra League [at 12:30 pm on 5 August phone call], I believed my daughter might be dead," Noshin's mother recounted.
Joya resumed her office when it opened after 5 August. Noshin is yet to go back to work, the doctor advised one to two months of bed rest, but she feels much more healed than before. However, sleep remains problematic.
