A pall of gloom prevails in the locality even after three years of Mirsarai tragedy, which left 44 school children and another killed in a road accident in Mayani area as they were returning home after watching a football match on June 11 in 2011.
Serajul Maula, a local resident, says sometimes mothers of the deceased students start crying out loud at midnight. He said the incident made him traumatised too though he had not lost any of his relatives.
“Many people shed tears for their near and dear ones while passing by the monument set up in front of Abu Torab High School, where most of the students used to study,” he said adding that the situation gets worse particularly during the anniversaries of the shocking incident.
Kabir Ahmed Nizamee, chairman of Mayani union parishad, told the Dhaka Tribune that after the incident, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced to observe June 11 as the National Safe Road Day.
“The Communication Ministry arranged an online voting in this regard. Around 2,000 participants out of a total of 3,297 voted in support of it,” said Kabir, who is also the plaintiff of a case filed in connection with the incident. But the decision is yet to be implemented.
He observed that social awareness would have been created against road accidents more significantly had it been announced as the National Safe Road Day.
The court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Farida Yasmin on December 8, 2011 sentenced Mafizur Rahman, the truck driver responsible for the accident, to five years’ imprisonment and fined him Tk20,000.
The children – students of Abu Torab High School, Abu Torab Primary School and Abu Torab Fazil Madrasa – were killed when a pick-up truck carrying them veered off the road and plunged into a roadside ditch in Mayani area on July 11 that year.
The Abu Torab High School authorities have taken daylong mourning programme including holding of commemoration meeting, prayer session and placing floral wreaths at the temporary monument to mark the third anniversary of the tragic incident.
However, there is no administrative initiative in this regard.
Jafar Sadeque, headmaster of Abu Torab High School, said the education secretary had announced to turn the school into a government one. But it was not implemented.
“The pledge to set a monument on the spot of the incident has also not been executed in the last three years,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
The temporary monument on the school ground was set up by the school authorities.
Jafar said he was haunted by the memories of the 34 students of his school even after three years into the incident.
He said some students – Abu Sufian Sujan, Dhruba and Kajal Nath – had been very talented and got scholarships in both classes V and VIII while few others got scholarships in either class.
“I believe that many of the deceased students could contribute a lot for the nation. But the accident has spoiled all the hopes,” he said.
Dhirendra Kumar Nath, father of Dhruba Nath – the first boy of class VIII at Abu Torab High School, told the Dhaka Tribune that his son wanted to be a physician with an aim to serve the people and change the days of their hardship-clutched family.