Cumilla lawyers refuse to defend Apratim murder accused

Lawyers at the Cumilla Bar Association have decided not to represent the accused in the much-discussed murder of 13-year-old schoolboy Ishayat Shahriar Apratim on “humanitarian grounds”.
Talking to the Daily Sun, the association’s president, Md Shahidullah, said the decision was taken after a meeting with association leaders, but it was not an official decision adopted through a formal resolution.
“Considering the brutality of the incident, we have taken this position,” he said.
Shahidullah said if no lawyer appears for the accused, the state will appoint lawyers to defend them.
Meanwhile, Apratim ’s mother Dr Nahida Begum, an associate professor of Bangla at Cumilla University, has demanded a fair trial and protested against what she described as attempts to blame her son in social media posts.
“Why is my child being victim-blamed?” she asked, stressing that Apratim was only a little boy and that she would never accept attempts to portray him as responsible for his own death.

She alleged that several Facebook accounts were circulating claims aimed at blaming her son.
“They spoke to him sweetly, spent a long time with him and befriended him, and now they are trying to blame him by saying, ‘Look, he was one of us, he was playing with us, and he died because of him.’ I will not accept that,” she said.
Nahida said she had handed over several drug users and dealers to police in 2025 while serving as the acting proctor of the university. “If my son was targeted because of that, I will not accept it,” she said.
"I'm worried about how many families could be ruined if my son's killers are freed. I want a fair trial of this murder,” she said. Apratim, a seventh-grade student at Cumilla Border Guard Public School and the only son of Nahida Begum and KM Firoz Shahriar, went missing on Friday; police recovered his body about three kilometres from his home on the following day. Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the case. They are Mozammel Hossain Fahad, 15; Kamrul Hasan, 16; Saiful Islam Tuhin, 19; and Siam, 19.

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