A tormenting farewell

Hridoy and Riya Moni were sitting in front of the mortuary of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital. The mehendi on Riya's hands did not wear off yet, but the new bride and her husband, sitting next to her holding her hands, were both sobbing.

The lives of the newly wed changed in an instant on Monday when a BRT girder smashed their car like a bolt from the blue and claimed the lives of five family members in Uttara. Riya and Hridoy escaped their demise – but only to bid a tormenting farewell to their loved ones.

"My mother died in my arms and I could not do anything…I could not even get her water. It feels like I am cursed," Riya said, wailing. "I lost everything."

Five members of their family including Riya's mother Fahima Akhtar, her father-in-law Ayub Hossain Rubel, Fahima's sister Jharna and her two children died on the spot.

They were heading to the bride's house in Ashulia after attending a post-wedding family event at Dakkhinkhan's Kawla area and Hridoy's father was driving.

"She was more like my father than a father-in-law. He was driving us himself to Ashulia and that was his last journey," Riya Moni said, sobbing.

Describing the accident, Hridoy said, "The girder was hung upon the road without any safety measure. Vehicles were crossing under the girder and our car followed them. We did not imagine that the crane would bend under the weight and the girder would fall on our car to kill five of my family members. Luckily my wife and I were at the left side of the car and that was the only reason we survived."

Hridoy asked who will be held accountable for this sheer negligence?

"There can be no compensation for this. Perhaps only justice will be the only solace, if it is possible to get justice at all," Hridoy said.

The relatives took their bodies from the mortuary of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College at around 4:30 pm on Tuesday.The bodies of Fahima Akhtar (38), her sister Jharna Akhtar (27) and Jharna's two children Jannatul (6) and Zakaria (4) were taken to their village home in Melandaha of Jamalpur.

Hridoy's mother Shahida Khanam received the body of her husband Ayub Ali Hussain's (Rubel) (55). Ayub Ali's brother said the body will be first taken to Shahida's village home in Singair, Manikganj. After a funeral prayer at Singair, the body will be taken to Ayub's hometown in Meherpur's Ghoramara Rajnagar area, where he will be laid to rest.