Tawhidul Hoque Siam

A Witness to History: Siam’s Story

 

Only a handful of people are given the opportunity to be a direct eyewitness to history in the making. Even fewer still know how to act when that happens.Tawhidul Haque Siam is one of those rare people.

Siam, a student of Management Information Systems at the Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur. He is from a very simple family from Companygonj, Noakhali. The eldest of four brothers, his father spent long years in the Middle East as an unskilled labor. 

On July 16, 2024 he was taking part in a peaceful protest march in front of his campus when the Police forces blockaded the march. The situation quickly escalated, where the police started throwing tear gas shell, sound grenades and eventually, harmful ammunitions at the protesters.

Abu Sayed, a fellow student at the English department of the same university, who would become the ultimate symbol of the revolution, was brutally beaten by the police. As Abu Sayed stood defiantly, the police shot him repeatedly, on his stomach and chest. Abu Sayed stood his ground but ultimately collapsed.

Siam, ignoring his own safety, ran towards Abu Sayed, trying to save him. In the process, got shot himself with many pellets (as many as 60 rubber pellets struck Siam, leaving injuries across the left side of his body, including his head, face, arms, abdomen, waist, and legs).

 This is when Siam chose to turn on his mobile phone camera and start broadcasting live, via Facebook. His passionate pleas for help and screams of rage at this injustice mobilized student around him. And ultimately, this is how the whole nation and the world came to know about Abu Sayed’s brutal fate.

Abu Sayed died a tragic death at the Rangpur Medical College Hospital, later that day. As the first Martyr of the uprising, Abu Sayed and July 16 forever changed Bangladesh’s history. Siam was there at the hospital by his side, still recording. He was himself bullet ridden and bleeding but refused medical treatment because he wanted to keep on recording and broadcasting. 

The next few days were a tale of surviving: hiding in fear, trying to get some form of medical treatments, (including multiple surgeries to remove the pellets from his body with the help of sympathetic doctors in Rangpur) and staying one step ahead of the police and the government party goons. Siam actually cut open several places in his body with razor blade to pry out pellets that were lodged in his body. But he never stopped recording and broadcasting. His footage became one of the earliest and most widely shared visual records of the violence, helping the world understand what had happened in Rangpur that day.

After the August 5th Victory and over time, his physical injuries gradually subsided, but the psychological impact of witnessing the killing of Abu Sayed, surviving the attack, and becoming a key witness to the violence left him struggling with severe trauma, anxiety, and insecurity. He was having difficulty sleeping, concentrating on even the smallest of his daily tasks, and his studies. This is how his mental state was, when we at Apaprijito 24 met him first.

Rehabilitation Support from Aparajito-24 Foundation

 

Siam was introduced to Aparajito 24 Foundation by DRIK, another human rights organization. DRIK had been, until then, looking after him. At that time, both organizations (DRIK and Aparajito 24) were seriously worried about Siam’s physical safety and mental well-being. After securing his physical safety, medical assessment revealed that Siam needed a lot more Mental Health support then physical treatment. Aparajito 24 started arranging a structured approach to his mental health treatment. This included regular professional counseling by both local and USA based psychiatrists and administering proper medicine. Over a period of 18 months, with personal involvement from several leaders of Aparajito Foundation, Siam has now began to show improvements and operate at an acceptable level. Our USA based psychiatrists have met him several times in person, for one on one consultations at our Mental Health sessions in Dhaka and now counsel him over the phone regularly while the Aparajito leadership team speaks to him whenever needed. 

In addition to the Mental Health treatment, Aparajito provides a monthly education stipend to Siam to help him with his expenses. Aparajito plans to continue with his mental health treatment, for the foreseeable future. 

Siam’s footage from that fateful day was featured extensively by local and international media outlets, including Al Jazeera. His experiences, however heartbreaking, during the July 2024 Uprising has convinced him that Journalism is his life’s goal. So, he plans to pursue journalism as a career. 

He continues to work part time with media outlets and is waiting for his Al Jazeera internship. We are hopeful that Siam will succeed in his quest for journalism, both local and international.

Siam also passionately believes in his calling as a human rights activist. He is an active volunteer of Aparajito 24 Foundation and plans to work with Aparajito for the foreseeable future. He is a regular at almost all of our programs and dreams of helping as many of the victims of injustice in Bangladesh. Whether it was of July 24 Revolution or any other unfair and unjust occurrence. We at Aparajito are convinced that he has a bright future in both Journalism and human rights activism.

Siam will graduate from Begum Rokeya University, later this year.