Bahrain fire leaves lives in uncertainty
Family members of, clockwise from left, Nazir Ahmed, Md Jamal and Mahbub Alam grieve at the loss of their loved ones in their Chittagong residences yesterday. The trio was among 11 Bangladeshis killed in a fire that gutted a labour camp in Manama of Bahrain on January 11.Photo: STAR
The Daily Star yesterday visited families of three deceased of a fire that gutted a labour camp in Manama of Bahrain on January 11. Residents of two Chittagong upazilas, these men were the sole breadwinners of their families.“Mother, I am coming home next week,†was what Mahbub Alam, another victim of the fire, said in his last conversation with Saleha Khatun on Friday afternoon. The bedridden octogenarian Saleha was wailing yesterday at the thought of her son suffocating to death. Her youngest son Jashim, a painter, had seen the unscathed body himself at a Manama hospital morgue in Bahrain. Working as a painter in a construction company, Mahbub had assured to bring gifts for his daughter Tanisa Sultana Mim, a student of class six, and son Abid Hossain, a student of class four. Both were eagerly waiting for his return to their East Bathua residence in Patiya upazila of Chittagong. Mahbub's wife Rubi Akter had been weeping since hearing of his death on Saturday morning. Mahbub had taken a Tk 3 lakh loan from neighbours before leaving for Bahrain in 2008 and only Tk 1 lakh had been repaid. With two school-going children and the earning member of the family passing away, Rubi yesterday was drowned in her thoughts of finding a way to repay the remaining loan and run her family.
Prabir Barua Chowdhury, Ctg A pall of depressive gloom was hanging over the Charkhijirpur residence of Nazir Ahmed, a construction site helper who died in Bahrain fire. With dried-up tears on her cheeks, his daughter Nasrin Sultana was sitting in their one-room tin-shed house in Boalkhali upazila of Chittagong yesterday, clutching his national identity card. “My father gave his word to come after the upcoming Ramadan,†she said in a low voice. Residing in Bahrain for the past six years, Nazir had called a couple of hours before the tragedy, assuring his wife Shirin Akhter, 30, of sending some money, which he did infrequently. Informed of the family's sole breadwinner's death by her brother-in-law, a shell-shocked Shirin was reeling over the thought of bringing up three children, all below fifteen years of age, and providing for a mother-in-law in her 70s. Having no alternative source of income, she urged for assistance from the government and the well-off of society.
Minhaj Uddin, Chittagong Instincts told Mamunur Rashid that a 6:00am call from a foreign number on Saturday had something suspicious about it. His fears came true with his uncle informing that his father, Md Jamal, working as a mason in Bahrain since 1989, had died in Bahrain fire. Jamal, scheduled to return for good to his Chiron Member House in Mariarpara village of Chittagong's Patiya upazila at the end of this month, had talked to his family members over phone early Friday. The youngest of his four children, Liza, a student of class two, said she was eagerly waiting to see him for the first time. Jamal's death was a bolt from the blue for his two sons who can hardly earn enough by selling betel leaves to support the family. His octogenarian mother Mohsena Begum, whose third son died from a brain stroke in Bahrain in 2006, kept wailing yesterday, “I want to see my son, bring my son back to me.â€
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