‘Death called them to the Padma River’: Family distraught after three drown in Munshiganj

The survivors wonder if they will ever be able to forget the sight of three of the family drowning before their eyes

All three of them tried their best to stay above the water. But, as their loved ones looked on, they sank into the deep waters of the Padma.

Kazi Harisul Islam was the uncle of Riad Ramin Arid, a student in 10th grade at the Milestone School and College who drowned alongside two other members of his family on Friday.

“They were bathing, and then, all of a sudden, they seemed to sink. They tried to survive. We tried to help, but Arid’s hand slipped out of our grasp. We did not go too far out because we were trying to protect our own lives. An engine-run boat came by and managed to rescue two members of the group, but the water claimed three of them right in front of our eyes,” said Harisul.

The group had set off on an outing from Dhaka on Friday and at least 15 members of the family had gone to bathe in the Padma River in Munshiganj’s Tongibari Upazila when disaster struck.

Arid, his father railway engineer Riad Ahmed Raju, 45, and his uncle bank official Jewel Rana, 40, drowned.

Raju and Jewel’s bodies were recovered by the Fire Service soon after the accident. Arid’s body was found on Saturday morning.

Raju and his family lived at a home in Mohammadpur’s Salimullah Road. The tense atmosphere inside the house on Saturday was only broken by the sounds of crying. No one spoke. No one but Harisul agreed to remark on the loss the family had suffered.

Harisul said they had gone on a pleasure trip to the Dighirpar area in Tongibari on the day after Eid.

“About 28 of us – five families of men, women and children – went to Dighirpar from Dhaka on three microbuses,” Harisul said. “Raju’s uncles live there. After Jummah prayers, we had lunch, and then everyone went to the Padma riverside.”

“That is where death must have called them. Why else would we have gone?

Though most of the family had gone in the water, the women and the elders were sticking largely to the shore. The incident happened suddenly.

None of the victims knew how to swim, Harisul said.

“Every member of the family witnessed their desperate struggle to live and how they sank. That is the saddest thing.”

“They disappeared right before our eyes. The men, women, and children of the family – will they ever be able to forget that sight? Never.”

Wiping at his tears, Harisul said, “Two sisters became widows at the same time. One of them lost her son as well as her husband. My brain is struggling to process it.”