Policemen’s children still await return of their fathers fallen in Covid-19 battle
"Why does my father not come to me? When will he wake up?"
These are the questions three-and-half-year-old Rayed Muntasir Alif frequently asks his mother and close ones.
Alif had been told that his father Rasel Biswas, a sub-inspector of police, was asleep as the last place his son had seen Rasel was in a hearse being taken out of the Impulse Hospital in the city on May 28.
"He still believes his father is asleep and believes he will return soon to him," Moniruzzaman, the child's grandfather, said.
Rasel was infected with Covid-19 while discharging his duty and died. But Alif is too young to understand what death is.
He keeps waiting for his father. And keeps asking questions.
But neither Moniruzzaman nor his daughter Jannatul Ferdous Munia have a reply ready.
Moniruzzaman said Rasel sacrificed his life for the country but since his death people's behaviour towards the family has changed. Some are so panicked that they even hesitate to talk to them over the phone.
Rasel was among the 27 members of Bangladesh Police who died after being infected with Covid-19 while discharging duties.
More than 8,000 police personnel were infected across the country. More than half of them have recovered so far.
Constable Jalal Uddin Khoka, 47, lost his battle against the virus on May 9 at Central Police Hospital in Dhaka.
His four-year-old son Samiul Arafat Jisan still knows his father is working in Dhaka and believes his father will visit him anytime.
He runs to his mother' mobile phone whenever it rings, believing his father has called. When he realises it's not his father, Jisan either hangs up or hands over the phone to his mother in disappointment.
"My son frequently asks me to call his father. He wants to talk to him, but I cannot tell him anything," said Sabina Yasmin, wife of Khoka.
Then there are stories of pride.
Two sons of constable Asheq Mahmud -- Fahim Mahmud, 18, and Naimur Mahmhud, 15-- feel proud of their father as he sacrificed his life for the country. The pride is, of course, bittersweet as it meants they have lost of their father, said Momotaj Akter Sumi, wife of the frontline fighter.
"The financial condition of our family is not good… It will be better if government manages a job for family members," said Momtaj.
The government has decided to give compensation to the family members of government officials if they are infected or died after infection.
The compensation for deaths ranges between Tk 25 lakh to 50 lakh, as per the salary grade of the employee.
But like Momtaj, families which lost the sole breadwinners think being provided a job for a capable family member would ease their sufferings better instead.
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