In just about two months time, she was going to have the most wonderful feeling a human being can have – give birth to her third child.
But instead, 35-year-old Monowara Begum was lying lifeless at the Dhaka Medical College morgue; she suffered 61% burns in her body when blockade-supporters torched the bus she was in on December 13.
The seven-day tug of war between life and death with Monowara in the middle ended yesterday at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the Dhaka Cantonment.
It meant that the seven-month old foetus in her womb, her third child, is never going to make its first cry in the light of day. It also means that Monowara’s two little girls will have to grow up without their mother.
“Monowara Begum, 35 years old and seven months pregnant, succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) of Dhaka Cantonment around 3:30am today [Tuesday]. Around 61% of her body was burnt,” Md Mezbaul Haque, sub-inspector of the Cantonment police station, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Mezbaul said they had received the body from the CMH morgue around 10am; he then took the body to the Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy. After autopsy, the body has handed over to relatives, he said.
Originally from the Gaibandha district, Monowara lived with her husband Nure Alam, a technician at the mechanical engineering workshop of the army, and their two daughters in Kafrul area near the Dhaka Cantonment in the capital.
On December 26, Monowara along with her two daughters and the families of her two sisters-in-law, went to her husband’s village home in Gaibandha after her father-in-law died.
They were returning to Dhaka on January 13 when pickets torched their bus near the Mithapukur area of Rangpur.
Four people were burnt to death on the spot in the man-made inferno. Monowara, her two daughters and the other members of her family all got burnt. One day later, her sister-in-law Tosiron Begum died at the DMCH burn unit.
The fire burnt 20% of Monowara’s other sister-in-law Minara Begum’s body. She is now undergoing treatment at the burn unit of DMCH. Monowara’s daughters – 13-year-old eighth grader Nusrat with 20% burns and 10-year-old fourth grader Israt with 10% burns – are now at the burn unit of the CMH.
The two little girls got hit on some other parts of their bodies when they jumped out of a window of the bus when it was torched.
This correspondent caught up with her husband Nure Alam in front of the DMC morgue; he was trying to arrange an ambulance to take his wife’s body to their village home.
With eyes soaked in tears, Nure Alam said: “What would I tell you brother! My wife was seven months pregnant but because of the burn injuries, she miscarried on Sunday. When the bus was set on fire, everyone from my family managed to get out of the bus, but she could not because she was pregnant.
“She always said she wanted her elder daughter to become a doctor and the younger one an Islamic scholar. Now, who would look after the two daughters and help them fulfil their mother’s dream?” he said.
“The fire has not only killed my wife but also my unborn baby and made my daughters motherless. I do not know how I will get over this and cure my daughters who are still undergoing treatment,” he said, weeping.
During the last 15 days of the non-stop blockade enforced by the BNP-led 20-party alliance, a total of 35 people have been killed in arson attacks and crude bomb blasts.
At least 13 of them have died from burn injuries that they had suffered after their vehicles were set on fire by pickets’ petrol bombs.
