LALPUR, Natore — Cpl. Masud Rana, killed in a drone attack on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan, was buried with state and military honors on Sunday afternoon. He was laid to rest beside his father’s grave in the family graveyard.
At about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, an army helicopter carrying his body, in a coffin wrapped in the national flag, landed at the Karimpur Government High School grounds adjacent to his village home in Boalapara of Lalpur upazila. The air was heavy with the wailing of relatives. From there, his body was taken to his home under army supervision. People had begun gathering at the home from the morning to see this brave son of the country one last time.
According to the family of the fallen soldier, the first funeral prayer for the slain Masud Rana was held Sunday morning at Dhaka Cantonment. His body was then flown by helicopter to Natore. After being kept for a while at his village home, his second funeral prayer was held in the afternoon at Boalapara Government Primary School grounds. He was then buried beside his father’s grave in the family graveyard with state and military honors.
The army said a unit of the 11th Infantry Division completed all the arrangements for the burial, including building a temporary helipad for the helicopter carrying the body.
The slain Masud Rana joined the Bangladesh Army in 2006. For 19 years he served with dedication. On Nov. 7, leaving behind his wife and 8-year-old only daughter, he traveled to Sudan to join the peacekeeping mission. Just one month and seven days into the mission, he was killed in an attack by militants. He left the country with a dream of doing the nation proud as a peacekeeper but returned in a coffin.
On Dec. 13, six Bangladesh Army peacekeepers were killed in a brutal drone attack by militants on a U.N. peacekeeping mission base in the Abyei region of Sudan. Cpl. Masud Rana was one of them.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report