Sylhet raid: Life miserable in days of gas, food crisis

Without food supplies, gas, power or any source of income, Rakib Ali is now facing bleak days with a son and a daughter in his shanty, thinking when will it all end.

A 52-year-old rickshaw-puller, Ali has been forced to remain indoors. There is no scope for him to go outside with his rickshaw for the standing Section 144 and earn his daily bread.

Also read: Sporadic firing heard as Sylhet raid rolls into day 4

The Sylhet raid that has rolled into the fourth day has forced locals into days of hardship – especially for the low-living. Food supplies are running low, power and gas lines have been cut.

Quarters of the low living people - Siraj Mia’r Colony, Munna Mia’r Colony, Sanor Mia’r Colony – where about 900 day labourers live, have been sealed off for security purposes.

“These people toil day and night to earn daily bread. But these colonies have been closed – putting them all out of work. If this continues, they will be diverted to crimes,” said Moinuddin, a resident.

With no indication as to when the raid at Atia Mahal will end, locals of Jainpur, Pathanpara, Bandarghat, Poitapara and Shibbari areas say they are now living in uncertainty.

Mosammad Housna Begum, 45, says she has been living off dry food for the last few days since the raid began and the markets closed. “There’s no power, no gas.”

“There’s sound of gunshots all the time, at day… at night. I can’t sleep at night. I spend most of the time in fear, praying to God that this will end and I will live through it,” she said.

Rabindra Kumar Deb, owner of local Deb Market, said the market was closed since Friday. “Business is bad now. We have 150 shops closed since Friday. No food items, essentials, nothing.”

Mujib Mia, president of Shib Bazar businessmen committee, echoed the same while talking to The Daily Star. “We are worried. We are uncertain when the raid will end and business will resume.”

The oldest primary school in the locality – Moha Lakshmi Government Primary School – has been closed down because children and their parents were scared.

Shamima, a third grader, said she went to school last Saturday and cried. “I got scared. There were so much loud noises, people running scared here and there.”

The school had very thin attendance on Saturday and was shut ever since, Golam Kibria Hia Mia, president of the school’s governing committee, told The Daily Star.

The school’s Principal Laili Begum said parents are scared to send their children to school. “On Saturday, two or three students came. But their parents took them away.”