She once passed her days helping wounded freedom fighters at a refugee camp in Kolkata area during the 1971 War of Liberation. After all these years, however, destiny has been so cruel with her that she has now ended up in a hospital bed as her son has abandoned her.
Speaking to the Dhaka Tribune in ward no 206 of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, the 70-year-old woman identified herself as Kohinoor Bewa. She urged this correspondent to sit beside her on the bed and said: “I have no relatives at all. I’ll fell better talking to you.”
Kohinoor said she worked as a presenter at Shadhin Bangla Betar at the time of the war and would encourage freedom fighters through her words. She was also widowed when her husband Badsha Miah died around that time.
“We lived at Kacharipara village of Jamalpur. After the death of my husband, I went to Kolkata with General MAG Osmani and worked at a refugee camp as a nurse as per his instruction to help the wounded freedom fighters,” the aged lady recalled.
She said she adopted a two-month old boy after the war as she was feeling lonely.
“I raised him with the best care and affection and named him Sangram. A couple of years back, I fell ill and because of pain in my legs, I was only able to move around with the help of a wheelchair. I went to my son’s house to live with him but my daughter-in-law wouldn’t like me much,” Kohinoor said.
Describing her woes further, the woman said she received Tk1.5 lakh and a wheelchair from Sheikh Hasina for her contributions during the war but her soon took away all the money before abandoning her.
“Sangram told me he would admit me to DMCH for better treatment and I agreed. However, after coming to the capital on last Friday midnight, he took Tk7,000 from me as ambulance fair. He then left leaving me on the road outside DMCH.”
The DMCH authorities at first did not agree to admit her but when the Dhaka Tribune contacted them, they finally admitted the woman on Wednesday.
She had a big trunk with her that was kept in police custody before she was admitted to the hospital. It will be returned to her once she leaves the hospital as that is all she now has.
“I want nothing but to just ask my son why he left me on the street. I want to live with him and will pay him for that if he wants because I have nowhere else to go,” Kohinoor said with her eyes filled with tears.