Most tragic home coming
Md Bashar Farhad, Mirpur, Dhaka
I don't remember the name of the boy and his country exactly ....for that, I beg apology to his soul. A young boy in Europe left his village to fight for his country in the World War II. The front was in an island in the Atlantic, thousand of miles away from his village. He fought valiantly and unfortunately died in the battle. He was buried in a shore side cemetery by his fellow combatants. The shore by the cemetery was under constant force of the enormous Atlantic waves. The soil of the grave had to give up the fight against the mighty waves and released the coffin of the boy. The coffin then travelled thousands of miles through the Atlantic driven by the current and miraculously ended its journey on the shore of his village from where he left for the war. People of the village recognised him by seeing the short bio-data written on a metal plate on the coffin.Even today the people of his village remember his return as the most tragic homecoming. On December 25, 15 of our army men who left us to serve in the peacekeeping operation of the UN were on their way back to home. Many of them had talked to their families informing about their visit. They boarded Boeing 727 from Sierra Leone...landed at Benin. By every moment they were getting closer to their own land, to their dear and near ones. Then the tragedy struck. For some unfortunate, unknown reason the plane hit a building near the runway, exploded, broke into pieces and plunged in to the Atlantic. Fifteen of our soldiers who went to serve a country for the UN were aboard that plane...but it took two days for that news to travel to us. The international news media like BBC, CNN -- who are hunting for news worldwide round the clock were not at all interested about the passenger list of that plane. They concluded just by saying that most of the passengers were Lebanese. This behaviour of negligence toward our national heroes who sacrificed their most valuable lives for world peace is just unbearable. I don't know about others, but to me those channels have lost their credibility. As I write...the dead bodies of the peacekeepers are already recovered from the Atlantic...and have started 32 hours long journey back to home. Every single moment they are getting closer to their own land and own ones. By the time the letter is published things will be over. We are lost for words, we are shocked, we are speechless at this catastrophic tragedy. I don't know how to express my deepest sympathy to the inconsolable families and relatives of those peacekeepers. The nation mourns for the fallen soldiers. May Allah keep their souls in peace and console the aggrieved families, friends and relatives. More than four thousand men of all ranks of all the three military services and police force of our country are serving in different parts of the world under the banner of United Nations. Lets put our hands together and pray for the safety and happy return of all of those peacekeepers. May Allah remain by their side!
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Bangladeshi pay their homage to the martyrs. PHOTO: AFP |
