Man mourns identical twin killed in Bangladesh unrest

Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho and his brother Mugdho were born only a minute apart. 

They were close, from the beginning at their birth right up to the end when police gunfire killed Mugdho, the younger one, during anti-government protests in mid-July. 

These identical twins were together much of their time as boys and young men, the surviving brother, Snigdho, recalled in a video interview with BenarNews.  

People often could not tell them apart. On occasions when these dead ringers were not together, one of the twins would play pranks on people and pose as the other, Snigdho said.  

“I don’t regret his death,” Snigdho told BenarNews. 

“He sacrificed his life for the nation. His goal in life [was always] to do something that would bring his family great pride. Not only are his parents and other family members proud of him now, but the entire nation is also proud of him.”

This past July 18, Mugdho, a 25-year-old MBA student, was lugging and handing out bottles of water to demonstrators taking part in protests against the then-government of Sheikh Hasina, when the police opened fire on the crowd in Dhaka.

Mugdho was among over 600 Bangladeshis killed in violence and unrest that rocked Bangladesh in the weeks before and days after student-led protests brought about the ouster of Hasina’s government on Aug. 5. 

As fate had it, the twins were not together on July 18.  

Allah (God) had predetermined that he and Mugdho would be born together, Snigdho said.

“But our shared demise is not written by Allah … but we were unable to share this death,” he said.