In tears, they remember mother

As a beloved mother, they still remember her in silent tears although four months have gone by.

Jharna Rani Bhowmik, 40, was one of the four people killed in a militant attack on the nation's largest Eid congregation at Sholakia in Kishoreganj on July 7.

A stray bullet of the gunfight between the attackers and police came through her kitchen window and hit her on the forehead, leaving the woman dead on the spot.

The victim's stepson Basudev Bhowmik said, “After the killing, the inspector general of police visited the spot and told us that Jharna's death can be compared with martyrdom.”

“The death of my mother has caused an irreparable loss to the whole family and still now we cannot get back to normal life,” said Jharna's 12-year-old son Shuvodev Bhowmik.

“But it could be a consolation for us if my mother is honoured as a martyr,” he said.

“I lost my mother in 1995 when I was a student of Class VII and my father Gourango Nath Bhowmik married her but she immediately became very close to me and washed away all my sorrows with her motherly affection,” said a sobbing Basudev, now a teacher of Tejgaon Women's College in Dhaka.

“My youngest son Shuvodev is yet to take sound sleep since her killing. He often bursts into tears after a blank stare at the photograph of Jharna,” said Gourango Nath.

Md Sultan Miah, local councillor of Kishoreganj municipality, said they have recently taken a resolution to name roads in memory of Jharna and two policemen who died in the attack.