Stray bullet left him in tragedy

Shuvodev Bhowmik hardly talks and he always has the photo of his mother in his hands. His visiting relatives only get a blank stare from the 12-year-old.

“Sometimes he bursts into tears after a long stare at the photograph. We cannot bear it and we have nothing to console him with,” said his 29-year-old step-brother Basudev Bhowmik. 

Shuvodev's mother Jharna Rani Bhowmik was one of the four people killed in the militant attack on the nation's largest Eid congregation at Sholakia in Kishoreganj on Thursday.

A stray bullet of the gunfight between the attackers and police came through her kitchen window and hit her on the forehead instantly killing the 40-year-old Hindu woman.

Eid might not be their religious festival but it was always special for the family as it was the time everyone was home for the holidays. Jharna was cooking something special for the family then. She had already prepared vermicelli, considered a must at homes during Eid.

“My mother used to make the environment festive when I returned from Dhaka during the holidays as it was an opportunity to unite all four of our family. Especially during big religious festivals, her happiness knew no bounds,” said Basudev about his step mother.

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

“Now I am motherless for the second time … . She was persuading me to get married soon and was looking for a suitable bride for me … ,” he said.

His father Gourango Nath Bhowmik said, “It is not like she went outside. She was home and the window was closed. People are no longer safe even at home.”

She was very happy as her elder son came home. She was cooking for her sons, said Dulal Chandra Bhowmik, brother of Gourango.

“She was a good soul. She never fought with anybody. She made a duck dish on Wednesday night and shared it with us,” Dulal said.

It is very hard to accept that she died this way, said Madhab Gobinda Das, a neighbour of the Bhowmiks.

Family sources said the shradhya (a religious ritual) of Jharna was held at her home yesterday.