Locked in a blaze
Every night before going to bed, Jannatul used to lock the room of the house they lived in.
For the fifth-grader, this had become a part of her daily routine, which she did diligently to prevent her mother, Kalpana, an epilepsy patient with other complexities, from going out in the dead of the night.
She probably had done the same on Saturday night when a fire originated from a mosquito coil around 3am and burnt to ashes their room along with two other rooms of the house in Baunia Badh area of Mirpur.
Inhabitants of the other rooms, which included a shop, could run to safety but Jannatul, her mother and younger brother Kawser (8) couldn't as their room was locked.
"When we broke open the door, we found their bodies next to it… Maybe they rushed to the door but could not open it on time," said Forhad Hossain, who lived next room. He along with others extinguished the fire.
Forhad said he could manage to get out before the fire spread. "Had the door not been locked, the family would have been able to go to safety," he lamented.
Visiting the spot yesterday, this newspaper saw 70-year-old Aleya Begum wailing beside the ravaged rooms.
"We told our granddaughter [Jannatul] to lock the door as my daughter [Kalpana] used to go out in the middle of the night without telling anyone...," she said in a chocked voice. Some were trying to console her, but to no avail.
A pall of gloom descended on the area soon after the incident. Neighbours said Kalpana had been looking after her two children by herself after her husband left them since she became ill. He remarried a few years back and stayed separately.
"Despite all odds, my daughter loved and looked after her children… She used to sell toys on footpaths to maintain her family," said Aleya, who lived close by with her son.
They were buried at Kalshi graveyard, she added.
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