Family reunion ends in tragedy

They were so elated to have reunited with a family member on his return from Dubai yesterday but then happiness turned into a nightmare on their way home from airport.
Some 16 to 17 members of a family, including the children and mother of the returnee, were going back home in a microbus from Chittagong Shah Amanat International Airport around 1:00pm when the vehicle's gas cylinder exploded at Miya Bari of Najirhat. Three women were burnt to death as the vehicle caught fire and four children sustained injuries, a member of the family told The Daily Star.
“We were so happy to see our brother after three years but now how do I reconcile myself to the fact that we have lost three members of our family forever,” said an emotion-choked Md Sattar, elder brother of the Dubai returnee, Md Shafi.   
The dead are Shafi's mother Senoara Begum, 55, his sister-in-law Parveen Begum, 33, and Parveen's mother Halima Khatun, 60, all hailing from Haluyachhari village of Fatikchhari upazila in Chittagong.  
They along with the children were in the rear seats of the vehicle, said Imran Hossain who had been on the microbus.
Shafi's three daughters Pami Akhtar, 7, Lovely Akhtar, 9, and Sharmin Akhtar, 11, and Sumi Akhtar, Shafi's brother's daughter, were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital with burn injuries, said Md Anwar, sub-inspector of Bhujpur Police Station.
Of them, Pami and Sumi are in a critical condition as they received 25 to 35 percent burns, doctors said.