A night of horror that seemed never to end
It was around 12:10am yesterday.
Rahima Begum had just had her dinner and was waiting for her husband at their home on the second floor of “Jahaz Building” in Kalyanpur.
Their son, Amjad, had already gone to sleep and two daughters, Shoma and Marjaza, were preparing to get some sleep as well.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, some policemen hurriedly got inside. They asked Rahima, in her late 30s, about all her family members and left, telling her that they would come back.
Minutes later, she heard gunshots, sending chills down her spine. She was completely gripped by panic the moment the thought of her children's safety came to her mind.
In no time, she rushed to them, held them in her arms and lay on the floor together.
As they were in that position, the police and the militants continued to exchange fire at regular intervals. Rahima could not remember exactly how long they had been like that.
“I thought I would lose my children. I thought we would die,” she told The Daily Star after coming out with her children around 4:45pm, passing over 16 hours of horror inside the building.
“It's like a new life,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Rahima and the children had an emotional reunion with her husband Shaheb Ali, a cook, who had anxiously been waiting outside. He had repeatedly tried to get in but was not allowed to do so by the law enforcers.
Shaheb hugged his wife and children and gave them food.
He said after the gun battle began, Rahima called him over phone and warned not to come home.
“You can't even imagine how I passed the entire night. Thanks to the Almighty for saving my family,” he told this correspondent.
With a monthly rent of Tk 7,000, the family moved in to a flat on the third floor of the building around four months ago. They shifted to the new flat some two months later.
Police claimed that they had evacuated some people from the building before and during the standoff between the law enforcers and the alleged militants. However, Rahima and her children could not come out.
“JAHAZ BUILDING”
Some bachelors living in the upper floor flats had forbidden the residents from the lower floors to go to the rooftop, said Rahima.
“One day my kids went to the rooftop. But one of the youths asked them not to go there again,” she said.
When the mother drew the house owner's attention to the matter, she too asked her not to let her children go there, claimed Rahima.
The family said they chose to stay in the building as the house rent was reasonable.
This building where nine suspected militants were killed during yesterday's standoff is known as “Jahaz [ship] Building” because of its appearance.
The six-storey building has four flats in each floor except for the ground floor which is used as a parking space.
A neighbour, who has been living in a nearby building for about 23 years, said the owner of the “Jahaz Building” used to rent out flats only to married people before.
Bachelor tenants started to move in to the flats some five to six years ago, added the neighbour.
The building, which had so many bachelors as tenants, was raided several times during the countrywide blockade enforced by the BNP-led alliance last year, said another local, wishing not to be named.
BUILDING OWNER ARRESTED
Police have arrested Momtaz Parveen, owner of the building, and her son Mazharul Islam Jewel for not providing police with information about their tenants, said Deputy Commissioner (Mirpur division) Masud Ahmed.
However, before his arrest, Jewel told reporters that he had asked all his tenants to provide him with their information which they did not do.
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