Fate betrays their plans, dreams

They had several plans but fate had something else in store for them.

One planned to get married soon after returning home. Another was to see his newborn baby for the first time. And yet another was to take his pregnant wife to a doctor.

But in a cruel twist of fate, more than anything else their relatives now want to know whether they are dead or alive.

They were all on the ill-fated fishing trawler, ‘FV Bandhan’ which capsized in the wee hours of Friday near the St Martin’s Island at Cox’s Bazar. It was rammed by a Singapore-bound merchant vessel, ‘Basundhara-8’.

Of the 29 fishermen and crew of the FV Bandhan, two were rescued while body of another was recovered. As many as 26 are still missing.

A senior functionary of the FV Bandhan, Ibrahim Khalil’ was to get married on Dec 25. But he is now missing along with the trawler.

His bother-in-law Mohmmad Zahir said Khalil’s parents were devastated after losing their only son.

“There is no hope of getting him back alive,” he told the bdnews24.com with a lump in his throat.

Another sailor of the ill-fated trawler Mohammad Rahim had promised to take his expecting wife to a doctor after returning from the sea.

Rahim, a resident of Bhola’s Lalmohan Upazila, married Suma Akhter two years ago. On Nov 19, he went to the sea.

She had last spoken to her husband around 11pm on Thursday. She is now anxiously waiting for ‘news’ of her husband.

“On that night he promised to take me to a doctor on his return,” Akhter told bdnews24.com.

She got to know about the accident from the rescued sailor Lavlu.

Among the missing is the captain of the trawler Muktadir Billah. As the regular captain of the FV Bandhan, Mahbul Haque Mazumdar could not go to the sea due to some personal engagement, he was replaced by Billah on that voyage.

He left behind at home his 24-day old child. “I would come soon,” he had reassured wife Kohinoor Begum, but little did he know that he might not ever return.

His nephew said his uncle had last talked to his aunt around two hours before the mishap. They were soon to shift to their new house in Chittagong.

Captain Billah’s father Abdullah Mian is the former chairman of the Azimpur union of Chittagong’s Sandwip.