“God has placed the burden of my child’s body on my shoulders!”
‘Dad, are you breaking your fast?’ The son said, ‘I am breaking my fast, father.’ This was the last thing police constable Abdul Motaleb said to his son on the phone after breaking his fast on Monday. Then, at around 8 am on Tuesday, while he was sleeping, the phone rang. An unknown person on his son’s phone said, ‘This boy with the mobile phone had an accident on the road, his condition is bad. What happened to your boy?’
Abdul Motaleb, who was at work, got up from his bed. He called his wife. He also called his acquaintances. His relatives started running with the address of the accident site. But by then, news came on Abdul Motaleb’s phone again that his son had died. The road accident occurred at around 8 am on Tuesday, near Lahiri Hat on the Badarganj-Rangpur road. Constable Abdul Motaleb’s house is in Masterpara village of Badarganj Municipality in Rangpur. He works at Hakimpur police station in Dinajpur. His younger son Sajjad Hossain (19) was killed in a road accident this morning while going from Badarganj to TMSS Polytechnic Institute in Rangpur on an easy bike. Sajjad was studying in the fifth semester of computer technology at the private polytechnic institute. Abdul Motaleb has another son and daughter.
This evening, upon entering Masterpara village in Badarganj, the atmosphere was tense. The people of the village were seen in mourning. One person showed Abdul Motaleb’s house. Upon entering, he saw the body on a cot in the courtyard of the house. After giving it a bath, the body was wrapped in a white cloth. There were a few chairs next to it. There were some people in the courtyard.
After a while, Abdul Motaleb came out of the house and sat on a chair next to the coffin and looked at his son’s coffin with a falafel. Later, he patted his chest and said, ‘In the world, the father’s shoulders carry more weight than the child’s body; Allah has placed the burden of that child’s body on my shoulders! Can I bear this burden? My father (son) was fasting. My innocent child will go to heaven. May Allah grant him heaven.’ Then he suddenly left the chair and went to his son’s coffin and cried, ‘Father, are you leaving me like this? Be well, father…’
Later, the people present caught hold of Abdul Motaleb and brought him to the chair. At that time, his wife Farida Khatun was in the house. It was not possible to talk to her. Neighbors said that the mother’s tears had dried up while crying. She was repeatedly fainting in the house.
There, he spoke to Ekramul Haque, a classmate of the deceased Sajjad. He said, ‘I have not found a good and talented friend like Sajjad in my life. Maybe good people live for a short time on earth. After learning about the incident, I rushed to his house from Phansitla in Bogra.’ Another classmate, Bandhan Kumar Shil of Sundarganj in Gaibandha, also spoke similarly about Sajjad. While talking, both of their voices were wet, tears were flowing from their eyes.
Talking to relatives, it was learned that Police Constable Abdul Motaleb lives at work. His wife Farida Begum rents a house in Rangpur due to her children’s studies. As Ramadan began, he came to his house in Badarganj with his children. This morning, Sajjad was going to Rangpur from Badarganj to collect some documents for an educational institution. He was on an easy bike. On the way, the easy bike lost control and overturned in a ditch on the side of the road, causing injuries to his head and chest. He died on the way to the hospital by the people present. According to his family sources, Sajjad’s body will be buried at Shahapur graveyard after the funeral at 10 pm tonight.
Badarganj Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Atiqur Rahman said the accident site is in Rangpur Sadar. Legal action will be taken there.
