A day he would try to forget

Before 14-year-old Ridad Farhan could recover from the shock of his father's murder, he had to sit for the Junior School Certificate exams yesterday. 

The body of slain Faisal Arefin Dipan, publisher of Jagriti Prokashani, was still at Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy when he took the first test of a series.

The teen's day was made even more difficult, thanks to some "insensitive" and "irresponsible" journalists who shoved microphones and cameras at his face through out the day.

Accompanied by a relative, Farhan showed up at the exam centre in an Azimpur school at 10:00am to sit for his Bangla test.

He sat on the first bench next to the door in the examination hall, said SM Kaniz Fatima, principal of the school.

The teachers tried to act as if nothing had happened, even though they struggled to not look at the boy, she said.

"Only he [Farhan] would know how he answered test questions, bearing in mind militants hacked his father to death just yesterday [Saturday]," said Kaniz.

Then came a pack of journalists. Two of them entered the room without permission and took his photo, she said.

Soon after two dozens more thronged the school's gate.

When the exam was over, Farhan was taken to Kaniz's room, giving him some time so that he could slip by the journalists.

"I could not understand whether journalists had any sense of responsibility or sensitivity or ethics.

"It has been a very difficult and long day for the child," said Kaniz.

Farhan waited there for half an hour until six teachers escorted him into a car waiting outside to take him to his father's funeral.

Kaniz sought extra protection from the education ministry for the boy from his next test, which is today.

The car took Farhan directly to the central mosque at Dhaka University for his father's namaj-e-janaza.

As Farhan was about to get into a car to go to the graveyard after the janaza, a TV journalist waylaid him and asked, "Did you take the exam?"

Farhan's steadfast grandfather Prof Abul Quasem Fazlul Haq requested the reporter to excuse the boy.

It helped a little as cameraperson continued to record.

Writer Ahmed Mostafa Kamal said, "The family is known for its uncompromising and resolute character."

That's why it was possible for the family to consider the reality and act accordingly, he said.

would have been lost from the boy's academic life had he not taken the exam." 

Dipan's family members requested journalists to respect their privacy during their days of mourning.

Farhan took the mouthpiece to address the attendees of his father's janaza. "Pray for my father. He will find a place in heaven," he said.