A marriage party has turned into a funeral procession with 11 wedding revellers died in a train-bus collision in Jhenaidah.
Jhenaidah Correspondent
Bimal Saha, , bdnews24.com
Published :02 Aug 2014, 01:22 AM
Updated : 02 Aug 2014, 01:22 AM
People of Shailakupa Upazila's grief-stricken Kaziparha Phulhari village are now mourning the deaths of those who were there only a day earlier to attend a wedding.
After the funerals of the loved ones, a pall of gloom has descended over the house which was preparing to receive the new bride the night before.
The new bride Jyotsna Biswas was inconsolable when she stepped into her in-laws home for the first time.
Jyotsna, a primary school teacher at Kaliganj, said, "These people have died because of my marriage. I will have to bear this pain for the rest of my life."
Jyotsna, daughter of Subas Kumar of Sako Mothonpur village at Kaliganj, got married to Tapas Kumar Biswas, son of Sadhan Kumar Biswas of Kaziparha Phulhari village at Shailakupa, on Thursday night.
Tapas's relatives and many people from his village had gone to the bride's home at Sako Mothonpur to attend the wedding.
Everything including the wedding ceremony went off perfectly.
But the accident at the Barobazar level crossing around 4am on Friday changed everything in the newlyweds' lives.
Jhenaidah’s Deputy Commissioner Shafiqul Islam said the train, Simanta Express, travelling to Khulna from Syedpur crashed into the bus, which was carrying the groom's family and friends, when the vehicle drove on to the unmanned railway crossing without checking for the incoming train.
“The train ploughed through the bus and dragged it for about 500 metres along the tracks,” Islam said.
Local people, officials of the Fire Service and police began rescuing the victims and retrieved nine bodies, mostly of children and women, from the spot. Two of the 56 injured had died on their way to hospital.
Tapas and bride Jyotsna survived as they were in a separate microbus which had managed to get past the level crossing only moments earlier.
One of the passengers of the bus, Nimai Saha said the driver tried to cross the level crossing as it was open. "And that's when the train crashed on the bus with a loud noise and started dragging it away."
The impact was so hard that many were thrown out through the windows, he said.
Instead of festivities, shock and silence of mourning received the bride and groom when the microbus carrying them arrived at the Kaziparha Phulhari around 9am.
Grief shrouded the houses of the families which lost their dear ones in the accident, said Phulhari Union Parishad Chairman Firoz Ahmed.
"The scene was pathetic when the bodies arrived at the village in the afternoon," he said.
"So many people have died at once... how the people of this village will overcome the sorrow..?"
Tapas Kumar Biswas is an assistant teacher at the Phulhari High School.
The teary newlywed alleged to reporters that negligence of the Station Master and the level crossing's gateman led to this horrible tragedy.
Ten of the victims have been identified so far. They are, Sudhir Kumar, 40, Biplab Biswas, 25, Sujoy Saha, 30, Shovon Dey, 2, Alak Kundu, Banya Rani, 35, her son Koushik Adhikary, 8, her sister-in-law 'Krishna', 20, Bimal Biswas, 45, and Ujjal Das, 25.
Chairman Firoz Ahmed said funerals of all the deceased were completed around Friday evening after the bodies were handed over.
