Born to be fatherless

A father holding in his arms his newborn baby wrapped in a towel is perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes in human society.
But Roja is the name of the unfortunate girl who will never be in her father's arms. She was born around 2:00pm yesterday, over two months after her father was killed after abduction along with six others, allegedly by Rab men in exchange for money in Narayanganj.
Jahangir Alam, the baby's father, was driving the private car in which Narayanganj City Corporation councilor Nazrul Islam and his three associates were travelling. The five and two others from another private car were kidnapped and killed on April 27.
Three former top Rab officials, who were fired from their job over the killing and abduction, are now in jail, facing trial in a Narayanganj court in this connection. All the three have confessed to the court that they were involved in the gruesome murder.
Jahangir had switched from driving a passenger bus to driving Nazrul's car after his wife's pregnancy entered the eighth month.
“He had been looking for a job better than that of a bus driver," Jahangir's wife Nupur had told The Daily Star after the April 27 incident.  
Yesterday, Roja was throwing her tiny hands and legs aimlessly, lying on a bed of a Narayanganj hospital where relatives of most of the seven-murder victims came to share Nupur's joy.
But there was no joy, and Nupur, 17, seemed reluctant to even look at her newborn.    
“She [Nupur] refuses to have a look at the baby. She is shivering and is very weak,” said Nupur's mother Minara.
The day before he was killed, Jahangir had expressed his wish to quit the job because it involves risks, as his employer was a politician.
“He was driving for the last time that day. That was his last drive,” said Asaduzzaman Rony, cousin of another victim, Swapan.
Jahangir's eldest brother Shahbuddin was also present at the hospital.
“What should we tell her when she will ask us about her father? … I don't think I will have an answer," he said.