She held on to her child as they burned to death

As soon as other passengers on Mohanganj Express screamed "fire", Nadira Akhter Popy grabbed her three-year-old son, held him to her chest and ran in an attempt to get out of the train carriage and escape the fire.

However, trapped in the billowing smoke, the mother and son could not make it out. They burned to death in the blaze.

When rescuers recovered four dead bodies from the train, Nadira's son Yasin was still nestled into her chest.

Yasin's uncle Delwar Hossain Titu said, "Nadira couldn't get off the train on time and both of them died… She was still holding on to her child when rescuers found their bodies."

Four people, including the mother and son, were killed after arsonists torched the Dhaka-bound train from Netrakona near the capital's Tejgaon area around 5:00am. Three carriages were burned before the fire service could douse the flames.

The four were put in bodybags and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue. Even there, Yasin and Nadira were not separated.

The two, accompanied by seven other family members and relatives, were returning to Dhaka after a visit to Nadira's in-law's house in Netrakona. They went there on December 3 after her elder son Fahim's final exams had ended in late November.

Sitting beside his mother when the fire broke, Fahim narrowly escaped as his uncle Habibur Rahman got him out of the train almost immediately.

"My sister was running to safety with Yasin, and I was with Fahim. I managed to exit the train with him but when I tried to locate my sister, the thick smoke had made it impossible," Habibur said.

The five other relatives had gotten off the train at Airport Railway Station, just minutes before the tragedy struck.

Nadira had decided to get off at Kamalapur Railway Station with her brother and sons like she and her husband Mizanur Rahman had decided over phone the previous night. They thought it would be easier for them to reach their home in Paschim Tejturi Bazar in Tejgaon from Kamalapur.

Visiting the DMCH morgue, this correspondent saw an inconsolable Mizanur, his gaze vacant, as he sat near the morgue where bodies of his wife and son were kept.

At times, he was seen placing his hand on his head in deep frustration, agony and resentment.

"I want to cry. But I can't. I can't explain what's going on inside me. Everything is ruined," Mizanur, a manager of a hardware shop at Karwan Bazar, said.

Just on Monday night, he went to bed excited to see his sons and wife again after nearly two weeks.

"My wife's world revolved around our sons. How will Fahim survive without his mother?" he asked, confused about what their future would be like now.

Fahim was taken to a relative's house while Mizanur stayed at the morgue.

"Till at least 4:00pm, Fahim kept asking for his mother and brother. We had to tell him they were ill and being treated at the hospital … I didn't want him to see them dead just yet," said Nadira's brother Habibur Rahman.

However, the bodies were brought back from the morgue around 5:00pm and the family had to let nine-year-old Fahim see his mother and baby brother for the very last time.

The bodies were then taken back to Netrokona for burial.