<i>PM returns the love</i>
Ramiza Khatun
The poor rickshawpuller showed a rare love for Bangabandhu and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has responded to return the favour. Ramiza Khatun, widow of rickshawpuller Hashmat Ali, was offered a tin-shed building, a gift coinciding with the holy Eid ul Fitr by the prime minister. The gift is an acknowledgement to selfless love that late Hashmat Ali showed for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Ramiza, who has been facing an uncertain future since the death of her husband seven years ago, will now own a one-storey building at Gafargaon in Mymensingh. ''This (gift) is more than an Eid gift . . . it appears to be an extraordinary Eid to me,'' Ramiza told BSS. A national daily report in May had acted to make possible a happy meeting between the premier and Ramiza this year. Hasmat Ali with his lifetime savings had bought a piece of land at his village in Mymensingh to give it to Sheikh Hasina who became orphaned after the assassination of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975. Worries and love for Bangabandhu's ''orphan daughter'' Hasina prompted Ali to save parts of his income, which eventually enabled him to buy the piece of land for Tk 24,000. Before his death, Ali purchased the land on February 22, 2003 from M Yusuf Ali, his fellow villager, and got it registered in the name of Sheikh Hasina. Lokman Hossain Mian, deputy commissioner of Mymensingh, told BSS that the PM recently sanctioned Tk five lakh to the district administration to build a house for Ramiza, on the land Hasmat had gifted to Hasina. ''The land has already been developed earmarking it with bamboo fencing . . . soon the construction of the house will be completed,'' he said. ''I did not want to take back the land when she (Hasina) offered it to me,'' Ramiza recalled in emotion-choked voice her meeting with the PM in June. ''I told her that your father (Hashmat Ali) gave it to you; this is your land . . . but in reply Hasina said Ma, thik ase (all right), but I am keeping it with you and you will stay there.'' Ramiza is now being treated for old age ailments at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical University Hospital, under special care for the past three months. The PM herself enquires about her health condition from time to time.
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