Brahmanbaria Train Accident: A mother’s search for her sons continues
Four days have passed since the gruesome accident on early Tuesday in Brahmanbaria; brothers -- Nurul Islam and Badal Mia -- still remain missing.
Clutching their photos to her chest, on Thursday, their mother Sahara Begum was seen frantically asking strangers near the Mandobagh Railway Station if they know of her sons’ whereabouts.
“On Sunday, I spoke to my sons. They sent me Tk 500 through bKash and told me that they would take the train home the following day. But they didn’t,” said an inconsolable Sahara.
Masons by profession, Nurul and Badal -- hailing from Dengura village of Islampur upazila under Jamalpur district -- were working at a construction site in Moulvibazar town. They were returning from Sreemangal early Tuesday on Udayan Express.
“They fell asleep in the train and missed Akhaura station. They told me over phone that they will get off at the next stoppage,” she said.
The following day, Sahara heard the news of the train accident and tried to call her sons over phone but they remain unreachable.
Talking to this correspondent at the railway station, she said her husband died about four years ago. Nurul and Badal have been keeping the family afloat.
“What will happen now? How will I go on?” Sahara broke down. “I looked for them at hospitals in Cumilla and Brahmanbaria but there is no trace of them.”
In search of her sons, on Friday, Sahara even went to Moulvibazar where her sons used to work but she was told that the brothers got on the train to go home.
Around 3am on November 12, a Chattogram-bound train from Sylhet -- Udayan Express -- was changing its track to allow Dhaka-bound train Turna Nishita Express from Chattogram to pass by Mandobagh Railway Station.
As 11 of the 14 coaches of Udayan got on the loop line from the single track, Turna Nishita coming from the opposite direction rammed its 12th coach.
Three coaches of Udayan went off the track on impact and got mangled, trapping many passengers inside. Nine of them died on the spot and scores of others were injured.
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