Eid won't bring joy to them

Just some new clothes on Eid were enough to bring a smile on the faces of Samu Begum and her family members.

So when they heard that someone was distributing zakat clothes nearby, they decided to rush there.

Around 11:00pm on Thursday, Samu, her daughter Sakhina Begum, and her granddaughter Lamia left their home in Patgudam Non-Bengali Camp area of Mymensingh town for Atul Chakrabarty Road, where the clothes would be given away, said Samu's husband Abdul Barek.  

When they reached the house of Mohammad Shamim, owner of a chewing tobacco brand “Nurani Jorda”, they joined hundreds of other zakat seekers there.      

After a night-long wait, someone opened the narrow main gate of the house from inside around 5:00am yesterday. The clothes were supposed to be distributed from inside the house.

But suddenly, all of them tried to get in at once, triggering a stampede that killed Samu, Sakhina, Lamia and at least 24 others.   

“I have lost all of them for some clothes,” said Abdul Barek, sobbing uncontrollably.

Samu used to work as a maid at a private clinic in Mymensingh while Barek works at a saw-mill. Barek has become irregular in his work because of his old age. He now fears for the future of his family.

Joynal Abedin, a resident at the camp where Samu used to live, said, the entire area was mourning the deaths of the three. 

Mohammad Kashim, another local, said poor people had been collecting zakat clothes from Shamim's house for the last 30 years but nothing like this had ever happened.

Aysha Khatun, the victims' neighbour, said she had also gone to Shamim's house Thursday night but returned seeing the huge crowd.