‘Heard a bang, then I was up in the air’
“I was sleepy when I heard a bang and soon found myself flung up in the air. The compartment I was in was tossed up several feet high above the ground.”
This is how Shamim Hossain, a passenger of Chattogram-bound Udayan Express, recounted the moment the train was rammed by Dhaka-bound Turna Nishita Express.
Shamim along with his elder brother Al-Amin and their uncle Manu Mia were sitting near the door of a compartment when the collision took place in Brahmanbaria’s Kasba. They all are masons.
Shamim and his uncle lost trace of Al-Amin immediately after the accident around 3:00am. They searched everywhere, but could not find him.
Firefighters recovered Al-Amin’s body in the morning, Shamim said before breaking down in tears at the morgue of Brahmanbaria General Hospital yesterday afternoon.
He said he did not have the courage to call his mother and tell her what happened. “She might not be able to bear the shock,” he sobbed.
While narrating the horrific moments, another passenger, ten grader Abdus Salam, said there were screams and cries everywhere after the collision.
“People were crying for help. There were bodies lying scattered in our compartment,” he said, adding, “I don’t know how I managed to come out.”
From Rangamati’s Langadu upazila, Salam was in the Udayan Express compartment which was the worst hit. He survived with injuries to his right hand.
He was on his way to Chattogram from Sylhet’s Kulaura where he had gone to meet his sister. Later in the morning, Udayan Express reached Chattogram Railway Station with nine intact carriages. Salam travelled in one of those.
Talking to The Daily Star at the station around noon yesterday, he said two of his friends -- Rahel and Rumel -- were also travelling with him from Kulaura. Both of them were safe.
But a woman, aged around 28, and her baby -- who were sitting opposite to him -- were badly injured. “One of the legs of the woman got severed,” he said.
Salam said Border Guard Bangladesh members rushed in after the accident.
CNG-driver Ataur Mia, who lives in Chandkhola village near the accident spot, said he woke to a loud bang. Later, a large number of locals, including him, rushed to the accident spot and started the rescue effort.
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