Abu Saeed wanted to pay off his daughter’s wedding debt with day labour. Israt Jahan Peheli Bhairabi dreamed of becoming a great baul singer. Abul Hossen wanted to go home with the money he earned hawking goods at a railway station. None of these wishes will ever be fulfilled. Reckless buses took their lives, along with those of others — 16 people in all across the day’s crashes. In the families that lost breadwinners and beloved children, there is only mourning.
Around 5:45am on Friday, in the Erulia Bazar area of Bogura Sadar, an air-conditioned Shah Fateh Ali Paribahan bus lost control and crushed farm labourers, killing seven and injuring at least 18. Around 7:30am, a Unique Paribahan bus that had left Sylhet collided with a Dhaka-to-Sylhet Bengal Paribahan bus, killing nine passengers and injuring at least 25. The same day, in Joygachhi-Raghunathpur of Bagerhat Sadar upazila, a motorcyclist, Saikat (38), was killed in a head-on collision with a truck.
The daughter’s wedding debt went unpaid
Sharecropper Abu Saeed (48) gave his daughter in marriage two months ago, taking on considerable debt for the wedding. To repay it, he had come to Bogura a few days earlier to work as a farm labourer. He had planned to go home in three more days with the money he had saved. But a bus took his life first. His wife, Rina Khatun, said these words wailing beside the morgue behind Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital.
Relatives said Abu Saeed, of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha, was a father of two with no land of his own; he sharecropped others’ land, which was not enough to run the household. Two months ago he had married off his daughter, Sharmin, taking on debt. His elder son, Shamim, works as a guard and has lived separately since marrying three years ago. Rina Khatun said: “My husband wouldn’t do labouring work in our own area out of shame, so he went to Bogura. Now everything is over for me. How will the debt be repaid? What will I live for now?”
Returning from singing at a shrine
Israt Jahan Peheli (17) sang baul and pir-murshidi songs at shrines. The daughter of Babul Mia and Rozina Begum of Bhairab upazila in Kishoreganj, she had posted on Facebook on 6 August inviting devotees and well-wishers to a baul gathering at the Chhawal Pir shrine in Bishwanath, Sylhet. On the way back from the gathering, she returned home a corpse, casting a shadow of grief over relatives and admirers. Babul Mia (50), who had gone to Sylhet with his daughter, was injured and admitted to Sylhet’s Osmani Hospital.
According to police and family sources, the rising young artist had joined a baul gathering at the Chhawal Shah shrine in the Bairagi Bazar area of Nadar Rampasha in Bishwanath upazila. There, to the applause of the audience, she performed lyricist-composer Pagol Hasan’s song “Galar haar banaiya dimu, dimu hater bala”. Before she could adorn herself in a red sari with a tikli, necklace and bangles as in the song, the artist crossed to the other world, leaving her admirers in tears.
Peheli’s mother, Rozina Begum, said: “My daughter had a great dream of establishing herself as a big baul singer. That dream remained unfulfilled.”
Shobha Ray loses a second son
Saptam Ray Pritom, killed in the Sylhet crash, grew up in the Hasannagar area of Sunamganj town. News of his death cast a shadow of grief over Hasannagar. A relative, Muhit Ray of Notunpara in Sunamganj town, said Saptam and Pritom Ray were two brothers — Pritom the elder, Saptam the younger. Twelve years ago, Pritom (11) was swept away by the current while retrieving a ball from the Surma river; his body later surfaced. Now the mother, Shobha Ray, has lost a second son. How will she bear the pain of losing two sons, Muhit said, fainting as he spoke.
Sumit Chowdhury, a Hasannagar resident, said Saptam’s father Uttam Ray lived in a rented house with his wife Shobha, sons Saptam and Priyom, and daughter Boishakhi; the household ran with difficulty. After the elder son’s death, Shobha was stricken with grief. To help run the strained household, Saptam took a job at a cloth shop in Sylhet’s Mahajanpatti alongside his studies. When both parents fell ill, Saptam became the family’s mainstay. Only days earlier he had spoken of his dream — to educate his sister Boishakhi and marry her to a good man. But he could not see his sister married.
Saptam’s ancestral home was once in Birat village of Ajmiriganj, Habiganj. They now have nothing left there.
Went travelling, returned a corpse
Five friends, former Chhatra Dal leaders from Kuliarchar upazila in Kishoreganj, had gone sightseeing in Sylhet. But four returned home. Saiful Islam (50), killed in Friday’s Sylhet crash, was a former vice-president of the Kuliarchar upazila Chhatra Dal and a contractor.
Two others — upazila BNP organising secretary Farukul Islam and municipal BNP organising secretary A. Latif — were injured. On Wednesday, Saiful Islam, Farukul Islam, Jamrut Mia, Md Rana and A. Latif had gone to Sylhet. Jamrut Mia, the upazila BNP’s human-rights secretary, said: “We had long planned to visit Sylhet. After touring various sights, three of us five set off by bus and two of us took a flight to Dhaka. Just before the flight left, around 7:30, we got news of the accident and rushed to the scene.”
Hafez Arman’s parents keep fainting
Rafiqul Islam of Monoharganj in Cumilla works as a mason in Sylhet. He said his eldest son, Arman, had become a hafez from the Shahparan madrasa and was studying at a madrasa in Dhaka. On hearing of the crash, he rushed with his wife to the Sherpur Highway police station. After identifying the body, they fainted again and again.
Abul Hossen’s earnings ran the family
Among the dead was Abul Hossen, son of Tarek Mia of Nabinagar, Brahmanbaria. A hawker by trade, he sold goods at Sylhet railway station. Before boarding the bus, he had told his family he was coming home with his savings. His cousin Sirajul Islam identified the body. He said Abul Hossen was the family’s sole breadwinner; mourning has gripped the household at news of his death.
Waiting labourers crushed by a bus
Locals said a market for day labourers and farm workers gathers every morning at Erulia Bazar; people come even from surrounding districts. Most work in various parts of Bogura Sadar during the day and sleep at night on the verandas of local schools; they number over a hundred. Early Friday, labourers were sitting by the roadside at Erulia Bazar looking for work when the bus suddenly crushed them.
The seven killed were: Abu Saeed (48) and Nur Alam (45) of Enayetpur, Gobindaganj, Gaibandha; Anwarul Islam (55) of Parbatipur, Kalai, Joypurhat; Amirul Islam (45) of Amirpur, Panchbibi; Tajimur Rahman (47) of Ghugholgachhi, Parbatipur, Dinajpur; Belal Hossen (40) of Fapor Modhyopara, Bogura Sadar; and Nur Mohammad (70) of Narhatta, Kahalu, Bogura. All were farm labourers.
Dulal Hossen, an injured labourer being treated at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College (SZMC) Hospital, said: “Five of us from the Parbatipur area of Dinajpur came here 14 days ago to transplant aman paddy. This morning many of us were sitting in the Erulia area for work. Suddenly a bus ran over us. Four of us survived somehow, but Tajimur, who was with us, died.”
Bogura Sadar OC Ibrahim Ali said: “The injured have been admitted to SZMC Hospital. Police are working to find the cause of the accident. Initial inquiry suggests the driver was driving drowsy.”
Visiting the injured at SZMC Hospital, the prime minister’s personal physician, Dr A N M Anwarul Kadir Bitu, said Prime Minister Tareque Rahman had learned of the accident and had directed that all treatment arrangements be made.
A crash in the same area, nine killed this time
Around 7:30am on Friday, on the Sylhet-Dhaka highway at Kashikapan in Osmaninagar, a Unique Paribahan bus that had left Sylhet collided with a Dhaka-to-Sylhet Bengal Paribahan bus, killing nine passengers and injuring at least 25. At a place called 13 Mile on the same road, eight people — including the then Sylhet district Awami League general secretary and freedom fighter Iftekhar Hossain Shamim — were killed in a crash in 2012. Nearly 14 years later, a similar crash has struck the same area.
The dead were: baul artist Israt Jahan Peheli Bhairabi (17) of Bhairab, Kishoreganj; Rubel Sutradhar (37) of Nikli; a 3-year-old girl from the Chandipul bypass area of South Surma, Sylhet; shop worker Saptam Ray Pritom (22) of the city’s Mahajanpatti; contractor Saiful Islam (50) of Kuliarchar, Kishoreganj; Abul Hossen (44) of Nabinagar, Brahmanbaria; Hafez Arman Hossen Rahim (19) of Monoharganj, Cumilla; Saniad Jahangir Sourav (39) of Pir Kashimpur in Bangura Bazar of the same district; and Saiful Islam Imon of Brahmanbaria.
According to bus passengers and highway police, a Unique Paribahan passenger bus left Sylhet for Dhaka on Friday morning. Around 7:30am, about 20 kilometres away at Kashikapan in Osmaninagar, it collided with the Sylhet-bound Bengal Paribahan bus. The Bengal bus was overtaking at reckless speed when the collision occurred, and the Unique bus fell into a ditch. Seven passengers died on the spot.
With help from police and the fire service, 16 people were rescued and admitted to Osmani Hospital. Of them, the 3-year-old girl died on the way to hospital, and shop worker Pritom died under treatment. The other 14 remain under treatment; among them, Babul Mia and accountant Atikul Islam Ferdous are in critical condition.
Osmani Medical College Hospital director Brigadier General Omar Rashed Munir said 14 people are currently under treatment. Highway police superintendent Rezaul Karim said police would file a case over the incident.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report