‘Annie still doesn’t know her husband and child are gone’

Almun Nahar Annie is one of the Bangladeshis who survived with severe injuries last Monday’s horrible crash of the US-Bangla Airlines Flight BS211 in Kathmandu, Nepal. After undergoing treatment at Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital (KMCTH) for the past four days, she came to Dhaka on Friday along with her brother-in-law Mehedi Hasan and his wife Saiyada Kamrunnahar Shwarna, who were also injured in the crash. All three were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s (DMCH) burn unit upon arrival. However, Annie, still traumatized from the crash, does not yet know that her husband Faruq Hossain Priok, 32, and their three-year-old daughter Prionmoyee Tamarra died along with 47 others when the plane crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport on March 12. Speaking with this Dhaka Tribune correspondent at KMCTH, Priok’s cousin Sohanur Rahman said: “Annie still does not know that Priok bhai (brother) has died. She is still frantic and not in her right mind. We were not sure what she would do if she learns that her family is gone.” “She was first told that Priok and the baby were in the ICU. But then she tried to go there and check on them. All she wants to know is where her baby is,” said the grief-stricken brother. Almun Nahar Annie, left, with her husband Faruq Hossain Priok and their three-year-old daughter Prionmoyee Tamarra Collected from Facebook“So the doctors and we had to come up with this story that I took my brother and their daughter to Singapore for better treatment.” “I am not sure how Priok bhai’s mother, the only other member of their family, will now survive,” Sohanur said. Priok, Annie, Prionmoyee, Mehedi and Shwarna were going to Nepal on vacation, he added. The crash and subsequent fire immediately killed freelance photographer Priok and his daughter, while an injured Mehedi managed to save the other two. The three were then taken to KMCTH.

‘Priok died while trying to save Prionmoyee’

Meanwhile, talking to reporters at DMCH on Friday, Priok’s friend Ejaj Ahmed Milon said Priok burned to death while trying to get his daughter Prionmoyee Tamarra out of the burning fuselage after the plane crash. Milon, who went to Nepal with Priok’s family members on March 13, said: “I have come to know that both couples were sitting in the front section of the plane. Mehedi managed to take Shwarna and Annie out after the plane crashed and caught fire. “Priok was injured, but he was trying to save Prionmoyee when he died inside that plane.” Regarding Annie, he said: “She is looking for her daughter every five minutes. We told her that Priok and Prionmoyee have been taken to Singapore.”Sections of this article was first published on banglatribune.com