CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH // The bodies of seven men who died in one of the UAE’s worst road accidents arrived in a cargo plane in Chittagong this morning.
Noor Nahar Laki, 42, has lost her only child, her only son, Mohammed Arif Uddin, 22, who worked as a painter. She walked feebly towards the unloading dock of the airport, supported by two relatives. She cried and mourned at the untimely death of her son.
She beat her chest and sang: “If you were here, I would feed you rice with my own hand. But you are gone now, from this cruel world”.
Arif Uddin left home three years ago. That was the last time his mother saw him. He returned today, in a coffin.
A lorry ploughed into the back of the bus carrying 45 maintenance workers just before 8am on the E30, the Old Truck Road, next to Al Rawda Palace on the outskirts of Al Ain.
Of those killed in the road accident on February 4, 19 were from Bangladesh. The rest of the bodies will be flown into Dhaka and Sylhet airports in Bangladesh from Abu Dhabi over the week.
There are an estimated 1 million migrant workers from Bangladesh, a majority of whom work in the informal sector, according to the Bangladesh embassy in the UAE.
Mrs Laki was one of dozens of relatives who gathered around a table set up in the carpark of the airport where officers from Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs ministry verified the names of the dead before giving out cheques for 35,000 Taka (Dh1,644) each to the victims’ families to pay for burial and funeral expenses.
The families of the men killed in the crash will receive at least Dh18,000 in compensation. The amount is an employee’s basic salary for two years, up to a maximum of Dh35,000. A labour law passed in 1980 requires money paid out of a company’s insurance to be passed on to “members of the deceased’s family, meaning such persons who at the time of death used to be entirely or mainly supported by the income of the deceased”. This can include wives, husbands, children and parents.
“They did so much for everyone and nothing came of them,” said Aziz Ul Haq, the uncle of the two brothers, Mohammed Masud Rana and Khorshed Ul Alam, who died in the accident.
“Why this punishment? Why? Why?” cried Mr Haq, wiping away tears, and beating his head while clutching a laminated photograph of one of his nephews.
Sadar Majumdar arrived to accompany his uncle’s coffin. Siraj ul Islam Majumdar was among the seven whose bodies arrived in brown, plywood coffins today.
“We wanted to make sure we were all here for him,” Sadar said. “So far the women of the family are too devastated to come, so have taken ill.”
Seven ambulances lined up, backing into the crowds that gathered around the coffins. Relatives were asked to stand in front of the coffins and fill out paperwork. Soon, wailing filled the air.
“My brother, that is my brother,” cried Mohammed Jehangir Alam, 29, as police lifted the coffin of Bohra Uddin, 26, and placed it in an ambulance.
The convoy of ambulances, sirens blaring, filled with grieving family and friends left the Chittagong airport, Shah Amanat International, with four bodies headed to Fatickchari, a town 60 kilometres north of Chittagong airport and 44 kms north of Chittagong city.
A prayer meeting was organised at Coronation High School school grounds in Fatickchari, after which the families conducted their personal funerals. Four of the ambulances were parked in the middle of a crowd of more than 3,000 men.
“They sacrifice their lives for their families. These are the ones who send money home and into their bank accounts, and now we have to make sure they are well taken care of,” said ATM Pearul Islam, the assistant secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League Central Sub Committee at the gathering.
The names of the men whose bodies arrived today are:
Mohammed Masud Rana
Khurshed ul Alam
Arif Uddin
Siraj ul Islam Majumdar
Mohammed Hashem
Mohammed Alauddin
Bohrauddin
Source: The National
