Just four months ago, Zarraf Ahmed, a young and promising software engineer, married Saima Rahman Labannya dreaming of a shared future filled with possibilities.
To bring those dreams closer to reality, Labannya had travelled to Australia to pursue higher studies. But in a cruel twist of fate, those dreams were shattered yesterday when Zarraf was brutally stabbed to death by alleged muggers in Dhaka’s Darussalam area.
The families are now left in utter shock and devastation, struggling to comprehend the heartbreaking loss.
“The loss of Zarraf has shattered dreams of his family and left a void that can never be filled. We want justice for the killing through a proper investigation,” Ahsanul Haque Zahid, a childhood friend of the victim, told The Daily Star.
Ahsanul said Zarraf’s wife went to Australia to purse her dream of higher study and Zarraf, a senior software engineer of Newroz Technologies Limited, was striving to make his mark in the country by founding his own enterprise.
“But everything is finished now due to the mindless act by the muggers,” he said. Labannya is now travelling back to Dhaka to say a final goodbye to her husband.
Hearing the news of Zarraf’s death, his elderly parents with the help of other family members started for Dhaka in a private car from their village home in Naogaon yesterday afternoon.
But they were taken back to Naogaon after reaching Bogura as the couple fell ill and lost consciousness on numerous occasions on the journey, family members said.
Zarraf’s cousin Kaniz Sharmin filed a murder case with Darussalam Police Station early today. Kaniz said Zarraf was the only son of his family and started for Dhaka around 10:00pm Mondy after visiting his parents in Naogaon.
After getting down from the bus, he took a rickshaw to reach his house. As he reached Darussalam around 5:00am on Tuesday, two muggers intercepted the rickshaw and attempted to mug him. When he tried to resist them, the muggers stabbed him and took away his mobile phone, laptop and cash, she said quoting pedestrians who took him to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital.
Hospital authorities could not identify his body and he was kept there for several hours. Family members said they had assumed that he had fallen asleep after reaching home, and had switched off his phone. It was only when Labannya had called from Australia and told them that she was unable to reach Zarraf for a long time that they suspected something was wrong.
They started making calls to various hospitals and police stations, and around evening their worst fears were confirmed. Rakibul Hasan, officer-in-charge of Darussalam Police Station, said they are trying to arrest the culprits.
The body will be taken to Naogaon after an autopsy and will be buried tomorrow after Labannya reaches home.
