They all used to play together on the Shahjahanpur Railway Colony grounds once but one of them has now left this world to begin a journey to a place of no-return.
In memory of his departed soul, Jihad’s playmates chose not to play yesterday evening and laid a floral bouquet on the cover of the pipe where the four-year-old boy accidentally fell into on Friday and died later.
“We will not be able to join Jihad in his eternal journey but we are placing the bouquet here to remind us that he will always stay in our hearts,” Jahidul Islam Maruf, a fourth-grader at Railway Colony School, told the Dhaka Tribune.
Jihad’s playmates gathered in front of the pipe around 4pm and placed the bouquet. They all were shedding tears.
Nazrul Islam, who is in the fourth grade, said: “How can we forget Jihad? We feel as though he is still around us.”
Another boy Mehedi Hasan said the pipe and the area around it would continue to haunt Jihad’s playmates who might not be able to play there again.
It might hurt Jihad if we run around and play here, he said.
Fatema, the girl who first heard the sound of crying coming out of the pipe, said she would always see Jihad playing and running around on the field with other children.
“Jihad always had an inncent smile on his face. I feel quite empty as I think of his absence,” she said.
Rawshan Ara Surma, who lives in the colony, said her son Atikur Rahman Nabil, a student of Ideal Model School and College, cried to join Jihad’s funeral prayer.
“But it was not possible as Jihad was buried in his home-town,” she added.
