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Sam Stafford died a year ago, but his mom still looks for her beloved son

By MANASH PRATIM DUTTA

GUWAHATI, Nov 30 - �My son Sam Stafford died of fever on December 12 last year.�

It has been almost a year since the incident, and Mamoni Stafford, mother of anti-CAA movement martyr Sam Stafford who is still under a mental shock, cannot even recall that her 17-year-old son died when security forces opened fire on December 12 evening in Hatigaon area during a protest march. Sometimes, she feels Sam is still alive and starts looking for him.

Following the shock, the lady is now suffering from severe neuropsychiatry disorder. Recently, she had been admitted to a city-based private hospital in a very serious condition. She was discharged from the hospital after a month-long treatment.

�For nearly two months after the killing of my brother, every day a number of people including representatives of various organisations used to visit our family. During that time my mother was almost normal, she even did not get time to weep properly. But the footfall of people decreased with time and subsequently she started feeling lonely. On May 5, she suddenly collapsed and we immediately took her to the hospital. Her condition was very critical. Luckily she survived. According to doctors normal blood circulation gets disrupted in a portion of her brain,� Mousumi Begum, elder sister of Sam Stafford said.

According to Sam�s family, Mamoni Stafford sometimes assumes that Sam is still alive and then goes out in search of her beloved son. Mamoni is an employee at the State Child Protection Society, but due to her illness she has not been able to attend her duty for a long time.

Mousumi Begum said that initially the doctors advised them to remind her mother about the actual incident that claimed the life of Sam.

�As per the doctors� advice, when we recalled the incident in front of my mother, she used to cry the whole day. Later the doctors advised us not to narrate the incident to her in such a mental condition. Now she is not even in a condition to recall what happened in her life after December 12 evening,� Mousumi added.

The family is now waiting for justice for Sam from the Assam Human Rights Commission. But so far no fruitful development has taken place in this regard.

�After the killing of Sam, everyone was busy paying tribute, but no one took the initiative to gather evidence like footage of close circuit cameras located near the spot. So till date we have not seen any progress in the investigation,� Sam�s brother-in-law Sadek Ali rued.

Sam�s post-mortem report said that he died due to shock and haemorrhage as a result of injuries sustained in the body. All the injuries were ante-mortem and some of them were caused by �rifled firearms� and some were caused by �blunt force impact�

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