A landslide, triggered by heavy rainfall following cyclone “Titli”, claimed three lives of a family and another man died in a wall collapse in Chattogram city early yesterday.

The three victims -- Jelekha Begum 65, her daughter Nur Jahan, 45, and four-year grandchild Nur Aysa -- hailed from Laxmipur. They lived in the slope of a hill at Feroze Shah Colony under Akbarshah Police Station. 

The other victim, Nur Alam Nantu, 35, of Gaibandha, was a rickshaw puller. Nantu was killed when a brick wall of another house collapsed on his tin-roofed shanty in Hill View area of Rahman Nagar.

Rahima Begum, a neighbour of the landslide victims, told The Daily Star that all the seven members of the victims' family are beggars.

“They used to return home at midnight. It was raining heavily when they came home [yesterday]. When three of them entered home, a huge chunk of mud fell on their shanty burying them under the mud.”

Expressing their helplessness, Rahima said they could do nothing with their bare hands. When members of fire service reached the spot, they joined in the rescue effort, she said.

Jashim Uddin, deputy assistant director of fire service and civil defence of Chattogram division, told this correspondent that the hill is complete sandy. It is prone to landslide when it rains heavily.

When the landslide happened around 2:00am yesterday, the victims were in the shanty, while the four others of the family were outside, he said, adding that by 7:00 in the morning, they were able to pull out the bodies buried under the mud.

Mohammed Delwar Hossen, additional deputy secretary (revenue) of Chattogram district administration, said it was an accident.

“Before the rainfall, we had campaigned through loudspeakers to make aware of the incident [landslide] and we had already relocated 100 families prone to landslide. When the family [whose three members died] was shifting to a safer place at night, the incident occurred,” he added.

The district administration gave Tk 20,000 each of the four victims, he said, adding that their bodies had been sent to their village homes.

People, living nearby the spot of the landslide, told The Daily Star that the eastern zone of Bangladesh Railway owns the hill.

Kisinjer Chakma, divisional estate officer of the eastern zone, told this newspaper that the hill had been leased to Concord Company.

“We will take necessary steps to remove the illegal structures from the hill.”

This correspondent yesterday found that around 1,000 shanties had been built by cutting the hill.

A high-powered committee was formed after 127 people were killed in a major landslide in the port city in 2007. Another 161 people died in landslides in Chattogram and Rangamati last year.

The committee made 36 recommendations to relocate people to safer places.

Later, the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) built a seven-storey flat building after taking token money from some slum dwellers, who are living in hill slopes, promising to relocate them to the building in Tigerpass area. But the CCC authorities deviated from their promise as they were mulling over shifting the CCC office there.

Three women of a family died after heavy rains influenced by Cyclone Titli triggered landslides in Chattogram city. Photo: Rajib Raihan/ Star