Loss, pain only for families

Bought nine months ago, the textbooks still look new. Noor Jahan stowed them in a polythene bag. Her son Sanjid Hossain Ovi used to read the books mostly in the bed that is now folded up in a corner of the tiny room.

Close to the bed stands a showcase wherein a crest lies. Ovi had received the crest in a cricket match. A little away from the showcase, a trophy stands on the shelf on the wall. He won the trophy in a football game.

Noor Jahan kept all these items as keepsakes of her son in their rented 300 square feet room at Rokonpur in the capital's Dholaikhal. The 19-year-old died an agonising death after being hurt in a crude bomb blast during the countrywide indefinite blockade in mid-January.

And these memories are all she has to live on for the rest of her life.

"Everything in the room always reminds me of him... Sometimes I chuckle remembering his childish exuberance, but most of the time the pain of losing my son rends my heart," said the heartbroken mother after taking a deep breath.

Noor Jahan's is one of 64 families who lost their as many next of kin in grisly petrol and crude bomb attacks in the nearly three-month-long indefinite blockade.

An eleventh grader at Kabi Nazrul Govt College, Ovi suffered serious injuries on his way back home when a crude bomb went off at Anandabazar in Old Dhaka on January 14.

Noor Jahan in tears holding the favourite book of her son Sanjid Hossain Ovi. Ovi was killed in an arson attack in the city's Anandabazar in January. Photo: File

He fought for life for nine days at Dhaka Medical College Hospital before finally losing the battle on January 22.

The blockade on top of intermittent hartals by the BNP-led alliance severely affected normal life. Though the common people have no links to politics, they were made to suffer the most. Some families have been ruined as they lost their lone breadwinner.

The political unrest seems to be over for now, but the harm it has caused to the victims' families is irreparable. Some are still struggling to rebuild their lives and many, perhaps, would never be able to.

At the far end of Kunjubabur Lane in Rokonpur stands a three-storey building. Noor Jahan's family has been living in the room on the ground floor for over a decade. Ovi grew up here and left behind all his bittersweet memories.

Two cupboards, a wardrobe, a television, a refrigerator, a safety locker and a wooden bed -- that's all they have. And everything revives the memories of Ovi.

The refrigerator still carries Ovi's name he had written on it in pink pen few years back.

"But it is only him who has been lost forever to us," said the 44-year-old housewife, with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"One day he stood up in front of the mirror attached to the wardrobe and asked me to tell him how handsome he was looking."

Noor Jahan still kept the bed he used to sleep in. "If we can build our own house in the village, I will decorate it with all his belongings," she added.

To earn a living, Ovi's father Delwar Hossain sells boiled eggs at Sadarghat in the evening. He buys vegetables from a wholesale market in Shyambazar in the morning and sells it in his locality. He pays Tk 4,000 a month as house rent.

The couple dreamed that their only son would be educated and change the family's fortunes.

Ovi also felt the need to support his family. He worked at a computer service shop part-time, earned Tk 1,500 and spent it on his private tutor and other educational expenses.

"Ovi wanted to be a lawyer. Many poor people in the country are not getting justice... many women are still being repressed. He wanted to fight for them," said the mother.

The college boy loved reading books. He loved reading the Misir Ali series by his favourite author Humayun Ahmed, said Noor Jahan.

The death of Ovi dealt a double blow to the family as they lost Salma, a girl they raised as their daughter since her infancy, in October last year. Salma died giving birth to a stillborn child.

Noor Jahan, now raising the two-year-old son of her sister, is still waiting to see justice upheld for her son's death. Early in March, she called up the officer-in-charge of Shahbagh Police Station.

"I asked the OC whether anyone had been detained. He replied in the negative. Then I requested him not to arrest any innocent people even if it took time to bring the perpetrators to justice."

In April, she received a cheque of Tk 10 lakh from the prime minister. Earlier,   she had another Tk 10,000 from the Prime Minister's Office for her son's treatment.

On the politics of confrontation, Noor Jahan said nobody would be able to understand the way politicians act. "They will continue leading a luxurious life, but the common people will have to pay the price."

"Perhaps I will not get justice in this world. But I will definitely get it in the next [after life]... I wish no mother would ever have to go through such a pain," she said in a choking voice.