The brother of the 16-year-old boy slain in the Tazia bomb blasts cannot understand why his brother is dead.
Rashed Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune that his younger brother, Sazzad Hossain Sanju, a seventh grader, was standing next to the wall hit by an explosive device early on Saturday morning.
The brothers were visiting the Hussaini Dalan, a shrine central to the Shia observance to mark the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, when it came under attack.
Witnesses recall three separate explosions during the attack that left one dead and at least 104 injured, according to police.
Rashed said he started running after the first blast went off. When the initial commotion died down, he learned that his brother had been taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
By the time Rashed got to the hospital, doctors told him his brother had passed away.
“What did we do to deserve this?” he asks.
Nurunnessa, younger sister of Jamal Hossain, 55, who is in critical condition at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of DMCH, also asks why her brother is having to suffer.
She told the Dhaka Tribune she and Jamal were leaving the Hussaini Dalan when Jamal discovered that his mobile was missing.
“I said to him that it had probably been pick-pocketed and to let it be,” Nurunnessa recalls. “He went back to see if it had fallen somewhere near the gate.”
Then there was a bang.
“My brother is a tall person and I could only see his head from where I was. I saw him get hit by something before hearing a loud noise” she said.
She found her brother lying unconscious inside the shrine.
“If I could have stopped him, he would have been spared being hurt in the attack,” she said.
Five members of another family were injured in the bombing, including 18-month-old Kayes Hossain.
The infant’s injured family members include his mother Halima Begum, 22, Halima’s husband Monir Hossain, 35, her brother-in-law Nur Hossain, 45, and cousin Kamal Hossain, 27. The family is being treated at the DMCH.
