When family members and friends were putting the burnt bodies of Nuruzzaman Paplu and Maisha Tasneem in the grave yesterday, they were still in a state of shock.
Thousands gathered at the funeral of the father-daughter duo, tragic victims of political violence induced by the ongoing blockade-hartal programme of the BNP-led 20-party alliance.
Paplu, 50, and Maisha, 15, along with five others, were killed on the spot when pickets threw petrol bomb at a running passenger bus on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Chouddagram area in Comilla early Tuesday morning.
16 others were severely injured, six of whom are currently in a critical condition. Maisha’s mother, Mahfuza Begum Mita is among the injured, receiving burns in her hands, back and other body parts. The family was coming back from Cox’s Bazar on the bus after a short business-trip-turned-vacation.
The Namaz-e-Janaza of Paplu and Maisha was held around 11am yesterday at Jessore Central Eidgah. Later, they were buried at a graveyard in the town’s Ghope area, where the family lived.
Mourners were seen still trying to come to terms with the sudden and tragic death, but it became particularly distressing when Paplu’s elder brother Asaduzzaman and son Hasib Mohammad Imtiaz Zaman Mathin addressed the attendees before the janaza prayers.
Asad, director at the regional office of Bangladesh Jute Research Institute in Jessore, was the one who identified his brother’s and niece’s bodies at Comilla General Hospital.
“My family is the victim of political violence. They must stop this insanity in the name of politics,” Asad said.
“I pray that no other family suffers a loss like this,” said Mathin, a second-year student at Dhaka’s American International University-Bangladesh.
The glue that held friends together
Paplu was a well-known person in Jessore town, and Maisha seemingly inherited her father’s friendly personality.
“She was the centre of attention in our class because of her cheerfulness. She was always smiling, having fun with us. She was good student and aspired to become a doctor. We all took admission at a coaching centre together to do well enough in SSC exams, so that we could realise that dream,” said Tasnim Tabassum and Nasrin Akhter, Maisha’s friends.
Crying for their deceased friend, they asked: “Why was our friend made a sacrifice in this dirty game of politics?”
Md Abdul Aziz, headmaster of Jessore Police Line Secondary School, where Maisha was a student of Class X, said: “Maisha has been a student here since 2006. In all these years, we have not received a single complaint about her. She was quite good-natured and popular among her friends.
“Hurling petrol bombs is not the way to resolve political dispute. Children like Maisha must not take the brunt of the disagreement of our political leaders.”
Mostaq Hossain, principal at Jessore College and a friend of Paplu, said: “These deaths are unacceptable. It is heartbreaking how my friend and her daughter died. I urge the political leaders: please stop this path of violence.”
