Limon has reclaimed his life, but his wait for justice lingers  

In 2011, Limon was shot by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from a very close range. He was taken to hospitals in Jhalokathi but treatment was delayed. He was then brought to Dhaka and although he survived, he lost one of his legs.  

But his ordeal did not end there. 

The hospital in Dhaka refused him treatment following a home minister's instruction. Criminal charges were filed against him and he was hastily taken out of the hospital and sent to jail. 

However, while he was in jail, a court was convened and somehow, he was granted bail for treatment. 

Limon Hossain was innocent, and one of the many victims of RAB's extrajudicial shooting. 

After that fateful afternoon on the bridge of their local canal in his village of Saturia, Jhalokathi, where RAB officials shot him on 23 March 2011, Limon's long struggle to reclaim his life began. 

He is now a lecturer of law in Gono Bishwabidyalay and a happily married man. 

But for the last 14 years, he and his mother, who is just an ordinary village woman, stood tall against the most powerful - the state and its security agencies under Sheikh Hasina. 

Threats, coercion, and temptation came in their way, but they didn't falter from their demand for justice. 

"If my son was what they portrayed him to be, I wouldn't have the courage to face them the way I did. But I knew my son was innocent and that fueled my courage to vigorously fight for him and against the injustice he was subjected to," Henoara Begum, Limon's mother said. 

During the worst of their days, when the state and its security apparatus and a part of the media coerced them in every way possible to paint them as terrorists to allow RAB to circumvent its crime, they had figures like Zafrullah Chowdhury and Nur Khan Liton by their side. 

"If it was not for Zafrullah Chowdhury who helped Limon continue his studies, my son would be begging on the streets today," Henoara Begum remembered the country's gentle giant. 

When we met Limon at Gono Bishwabidyalay, the university founded by Zafrullah Chowdhury, we told him that the way he turned his life around was a triumph. But he had something different to say. 

"It has been 14 years since I have been suffering the injustice carried out by the RAB. There is no progress in my case. How can I call it a triumph?" he askked us while we were sitting in his chamber. 

Limon’s wife Rabeya Basri entered his chamber. She is currently an undergraduate student at the Gono Bishwabidyalay where Limon is a faculty.

A son shot in front of his mother 

That day in 2011, it was a regular Wednesday afternoon. The mother and son brought their cattle from the grazing field. On their way home, Limon decided to stop at the bridge and spend some time there. Two other local boys were there too. 

Soon, six RAB men came on three bikes. They grabbed Limon by the collar, and slapped the other boys, who ran away. 

"They said I was a terrorist and a RAB official named Lutfor held a gun to my head," Limon recalled. "I was overwhelmed by the situation, I cried and pleaded with them that I was innocent." 

Unfazed by his cries, the men dragged him a foot away from the bridge. 

By this time, Henoara learned that RAB was interrogating her son. 

"I casually walked [to the spot] to see what happened. My son was just an innocent boy. I thought it was nothing," she said. 

But the moment she reached, she found the RAB men on the verge of shooting her son.  

"They shot my son in front of me! I heard my boy scream, 'Maa…' the moment they shot him. I will never forget that scream." 

Limon was taken to several local hospitals but nothing helped. After two days, on 26 March, he was brought to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedic Rehabilitation (NITOR). By this time, his situation worsened. 

"I was in excruciating pain but no doctors were available because it was a national holiday. I was left without treatment till 27 March. Throughout the time, I was lying on a trolley in a verandah. And then they amputated my leg. If I had received proper medical care, maybe my leg could have been saved," Limon said. 

At the time, when Limon's news made headlines and the atrocities of RAB came to light, the then Home Minister Sahara Khatun visited NITOR one day to see some injured Chhatro League leaders. 

When journalists inquired about Limon, she asked the then director of NITOR, Abdul Awal (Rizvi), to release him from the hospital although he had not recovered, Limon said. 

Despite repeated pleas by human right activists, the authorities released him from the hospital and sent him back to jail in Jhalokathi the next day.

"I couldn't sit and my wound was severely infected," he said. 

The jailer in Jhalokathi, however, insisted that Limon's condition did not allow for him to be jailed. Then a court was convened the same night and he was given bail for treatment. 

"The most inhuman part was that during those two days, they forgot to give me any food. I realised how cruel hunger feels," Limon said. 

Eventually, the cases filed against him were withdrawn. According to a statement by RAB, "Limon was not a terrorist but a 'victim of the situation'. 

However, the case Limon filed against RAB has not progressed since. 

"They shot my son in front of me! I heard my boy scream, 'Maa…' the moment they shot him. I will never forget that scream." 

Henoara Begum, Limon Hossain's mother

The rocks of his life 

In the middle of our conversation, Limon's wife Rabeya Basri entered his chamber. She is currently an undergraduate student at the same university. 

Theirs was an arranged marriage but he gave her ample time to think about it. He sent her links to his life stories etc. And she was convinced.

The couple has been living a happy life for the last three years. 

"I never feel Limon doesn't have a leg. It just feels so normal," Rabeya said with a smile. 

He later revealed that he was lucky to have Rabeya as his wife. 

"She is a very good girl," his face brightened as he spoke about his wife. 

He said that for this part of his life, he is indebted to a lot of people. 

"Some people helped me so much I cannot describe it in words. Among them was of course Zafrullah Chowdhury, Nur Khan Liton, Prothom Alo's Akhter Shikder, and all the journalists in Jhalokathi."

"My mother was my rock, and then there was Zafrullah Chowdhury. He was not my father but he did what no biological father could ever do," he said. 

After he admitted Limon to Gono Bishwabidyalay for a nominal charge, Zafrullah always looked after him. 

"When I graduated, I took my certificate to Zafrullah Sir. He looked at it and smiled so beautifully that it still stays with me," Limon said. "All these people who came to my life during this phase loved me so much that I forgot I had lost a leg." 

Limon completed his Masters from Islamic University in Kushtia and later joined Gono Bishwabidyalay as a faculty. 

"Although I am a grown man now, my mother still advises me to travel with caution etc, as if I am still a child," Limon said with a laugh. 

Limon completed his Masters from Islamic University in Kushtia and later joined Gono Bishwabidyalay as a faculty. Photo: Mehedi Hasan

The long wait for justice 

At that time, Nur Khan Liton was one of the few human rights activists who campaigned for Limon's release when no one dared to speak up. 

He said after RAB shot Limon, and there were efforts to brand him a terrorist to legitimise their brutality, it became difficult to stand for him. 

"After Prothom Alo reported about Limon, some newspapers on the contrary started to portray him as a terrorist or an accomplice to terrorists to legitimise the crimes of RAB. They victimised him even more," Nur Khan said.

"Taking a stance against such a brutal force and establishing the truth was a difficult task at that time. Back when we were engaged in the campaigns etc; there were others with me too but it was very challenging for all of us," Nur Khan added. 

We asked him whether there was new hope for Limon's case to progress and he might receive justice now that there was an interim government in place. 

"We don't want to lose hope," he replied. 

Limon said although he filed his case more than a decade ago, there was no result. All this time they couldn't even complete the investigation, he said. 

"From the police, the case went to RAB and then to PBI (Police Bureau of Investigation), and now, it is with CID (Criminal Investigation Department). This is all but delaying justice in the name of investigation. Even some of my witnesses have died. I do not know if I will ever get justice; it upsets me to think about it," Limon said. 

He said it is ridiculous that for more than a decade, the authorities have been investigating who shot him. 

"This is funny because it is not like I died there! I am alive, and I saw him with my own eyes. I even told them his name. Maybe at NITOR they still have the bullet that they fired at me. I don't know if they looked for that particular medical file at all." 

"Instead of justice, they threatened me – one of them was Lt Colonel Ziaul Ahsan of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) – who said that in a country where they can expel the Chief Justice, where enforced disappearances happen with indemnity, there is no point in asking for justice. He told me all this himself at the NTMC office located in front of the PMO. He also offered me a job, apartments etc if I withdrew the case or gave into their coercion," Limon said. 

But he didn't back down from his demand for justice. With the Yunus government in power, he has recently issued a letter to them seeking help in this regard. 

His persistence comes from his mother who was steadfast in the family's demand for justice. 

But it has been so long that even his mother seems to be questioning her stances. Should they have fallen for those baits instead of seeking justice?  

"They didn't compensate for the damage they inflicted upon my son, they did nothing," she said. 

But Limon does not want to lose hope. He said, "I hope the interim government will help me get justice."