Since 2001, Pahela Boishakh has been a dreadful reminder of loss and pain for the residents of Gazi Bari in Kachhipara village, 40km away from Patuakhali town.
Thirteen years after they lost three family members in the heinous grenade attack at the Bangla New Year’s celebration in Ramna Botomool in Dhaka, the Gazi family’s grieving is now lined with outrage at the delay of justice.
The three victims were: Al Mamun, 13, son of Kashem Gazi and a seventh-grader at Kachhipara Secondary School; Zannatul Ferdous Shilpi, 20, daughter of Hashem Gazi and a first-year student at Kachhipara Degree College; and Riazul, 22, son of Shamsul Haq Gazi and a medicine trader near Suhrawardy Hospital, Dhaka.
While talking to journalists yesterday, the Gazi family demanded for speedy trials and exemplary punishment to the perpetrators of the attack.
Remembering the tragedy
According to the family members, Mamun, Shilpi and Riazul were visiting Masud, Mamun’s elder brother and an employee at a community centre at Shyamoli ahead of April 14 in 2001. The three cousins wanted to experience the traditional celebration of the country’s biggest cultural festival, so they went to Ramna Botomool that day.
Masud’s wife Parvin reminisced: “We used to live in Dhaka back then. The cousins came to visit us and also to celebrate Pahela Boishakh in Dhaka. On April 14 morning, they went to Ramna Botomool. When we came to know about the blast, we rushed to the scene. It was in vain, though, as the doctors at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital had already declared all the three dead.”
A teary-eyed Shamsul, Riazul’s father, said: “I had forbidden my son to attend any crowded event. But he ignored my instruction. Perhaps it was the call of Death.”
“No one cares to meet us, except for a few journalists who visit us every year on the anniversary and give us worthless consolation. None of them can give us the answers to our questions: Why were our children killed at a non-political, social event? Why have the plotters and killers not been arrested yet?” said Kashem, Mamun’s father.
Suja Begum, Shilpi’s mother, died on February 12, 2006 without seeing the trial and punishment of the culprits who killed the youngest of her seven children. Ershad Gazi, Mamun’s younger brother, said: “My cousin Dulu, Riazul’s younger brother, lost mental balance after the deaths. Now we only want a trial and punishment of the killers.”
They also said they had arranged for special prayers and cleaning and visiting the graves with the family to remember the departed, as usual.