roshiq
10-27-2007, 11:07 PM
Though it has been late, but I like to share this true story here that shocked us greatly few months ago.
Nine members of a family, including three children, allegedly committed suicide by jumping under a train at Kashore near the outer signal of Mymensingh Railway Station, Mymensingh, Bangladesh on July 11, 2007.
The deceased were identified as Hena Begum (60), wife of the late Anwar Fakir, their son Arif (22), daughters Akhtari Begum (30), Obhi (40), Murshida Akhtar (27), Rahat (20), and Shabnam (10), and Obhi’s daughter Mariam (10), and her son, Mollah (8). They were the family members of the late Anwar Hossain Fakir.
Local sources said the elderly family members tied up the younger ones with clothes and then, altogether, jumped under the train. All the nine were cut into pieces that lay scattered on the spot, they said. Hundreds of people, on hearing of the appalling incident, gathered around the scene where the dismembered parts of bodies of the deceased lay scattered. Some of the parts were scattered for nearly 3 kilometers along the railway tracks up to Sankipara level crossing, said the witnesses. The deputy commissioner and the police superintendent visited the scene. The police collected the bodies for postmortem examinations at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.
Local people described the incident as a "preplanned suicide" as a grave was dug on the premises of their house and a coffin was also kept there. They said the family had confined themselves to their house and led an isolated life. Police cordoned off the house, 10 yards from the place of occurrence.
Neither the police nor the local people could figure out what prompted nine of a family to commit suicide on the railway in the Mymensingh town on Wednesday, July 11, 2007.
They could only identify three reasons — failure to establish their creed, seclusion for long and poverty — that might have pushed them to commit suicide.
Tariqul Alam Tuhin, a nephew of Hena, Anwar’s wife, said the rumour that they all had converted to Christianity was sparked by two coffins found at the house of the victims, but those two coffins had actually been used to carry Anwar Hossain Fakir's body from Dhaka to Kashor after he had died in Birdem Hospital in the capital in 2000, and the other coffin had been used to carry his elder son Mahi's body from Dhaka after he had been killed at Kalabagan in the capital in 2003.The family members might have preserved the coffins with great care as memories of the deceased, Tuhin added.
Anwar Hossain Fakir, also known as Dervish Baba in the locality, was an ex-army man and a gold medal-winning boxer of the Pakistan Army before the independence. He settled at Kashor in Mymensingh town near the house of his in-laws in 1972 after retirement. Tuhin said till 1995 the family had been devoted to regular Muslim religious activities but after Anwar Fakir had taken up a self styled religiosity, the family stopped following their regular practices. Local residents said the Fakirs had gradually secluded themselves as people strongly objected to their creed, which ran counter to Islam and the Prophet. ‘When Anwar Hossain started preaching his creed at his house after his retirement, but nobody in the area liked it. The neighbors asked him to stop his activities,’ Sirajul Haq, a neighbors, told New Age, a local newspaper on Thursday, July 12, 2007.People from faraway places used to visit Anwar and he used to talk against Islam and the Prophet and tried to convert them to his creed, he said.
After the death of Anwar in 2000, local residents became angry when the family claimed that they had converted to Christianity, which was later found to be ‘false.’ Anwar was buried in Islamic rites, he said. But at that moment a dispute erupted between the local people and the family over Anwar Fakir's burial, as the family members wanted to wrap Anwar's body in a red cloth and bury him sitting in the grave complying with 'the will of Anwar'.
Since then, the family had remained completely secluded, which was a mystery to the neighbors because of the way of living. They would not let anyone in the house and the neighbors were also unwilling to visit them. As the family avoided the local people, the locals also avoided them. Another relative of Anwar Fakir said they avoided the family only to maintain good relations with the local people.
Nine members of a family, including three children, allegedly committed suicide by jumping under a train at Kashore near the outer signal of Mymensingh Railway Station, Mymensingh, Bangladesh on July 11, 2007.
The deceased were identified as Hena Begum (60), wife of the late Anwar Fakir, their son Arif (22), daughters Akhtari Begum (30), Obhi (40), Murshida Akhtar (27), Rahat (20), and Shabnam (10), and Obhi’s daughter Mariam (10), and her son, Mollah (8). They were the family members of the late Anwar Hossain Fakir.
Local sources said the elderly family members tied up the younger ones with clothes and then, altogether, jumped under the train. All the nine were cut into pieces that lay scattered on the spot, they said. Hundreds of people, on hearing of the appalling incident, gathered around the scene where the dismembered parts of bodies of the deceased lay scattered. Some of the parts were scattered for nearly 3 kilometers along the railway tracks up to Sankipara level crossing, said the witnesses. The deputy commissioner and the police superintendent visited the scene. The police collected the bodies for postmortem examinations at Mymensingh Medical College Hospital.
Local people described the incident as a "preplanned suicide" as a grave was dug on the premises of their house and a coffin was also kept there. They said the family had confined themselves to their house and led an isolated life. Police cordoned off the house, 10 yards from the place of occurrence.
Neither the police nor the local people could figure out what prompted nine of a family to commit suicide on the railway in the Mymensingh town on Wednesday, July 11, 2007.
They could only identify three reasons — failure to establish their creed, seclusion for long and poverty — that might have pushed them to commit suicide.
Tariqul Alam Tuhin, a nephew of Hena, Anwar’s wife, said the rumour that they all had converted to Christianity was sparked by two coffins found at the house of the victims, but those two coffins had actually been used to carry Anwar Hossain Fakir's body from Dhaka to Kashor after he had died in Birdem Hospital in the capital in 2000, and the other coffin had been used to carry his elder son Mahi's body from Dhaka after he had been killed at Kalabagan in the capital in 2003.The family members might have preserved the coffins with great care as memories of the deceased, Tuhin added.
Anwar Hossain Fakir, also known as Dervish Baba in the locality, was an ex-army man and a gold medal-winning boxer of the Pakistan Army before the independence. He settled at Kashor in Mymensingh town near the house of his in-laws in 1972 after retirement. Tuhin said till 1995 the family had been devoted to regular Muslim religious activities but after Anwar Fakir had taken up a self styled religiosity, the family stopped following their regular practices. Local residents said the Fakirs had gradually secluded themselves as people strongly objected to their creed, which ran counter to Islam and the Prophet. ‘When Anwar Hossain started preaching his creed at his house after his retirement, but nobody in the area liked it. The neighbors asked him to stop his activities,’ Sirajul Haq, a neighbors, told New Age, a local newspaper on Thursday, July 12, 2007.People from faraway places used to visit Anwar and he used to talk against Islam and the Prophet and tried to convert them to his creed, he said.
After the death of Anwar in 2000, local residents became angry when the family claimed that they had converted to Christianity, which was later found to be ‘false.’ Anwar was buried in Islamic rites, he said. But at that moment a dispute erupted between the local people and the family over Anwar Fakir's burial, as the family members wanted to wrap Anwar's body in a red cloth and bury him sitting in the grave complying with 'the will of Anwar'.
Since then, the family had remained completely secluded, which was a mystery to the neighbors because of the way of living. They would not let anyone in the house and the neighbors were also unwilling to visit them. As the family avoided the local people, the locals also avoided them. Another relative of Anwar Fakir said they avoided the family only to maintain good relations with the local people.