Tale of a hero who didn't just sit back

He helped many save their lives on that fateful day but lost most of his family members. And finally, he himself died of injuries.

The man, Nabi Hossain, 55, was critically wounded in Tuesday morning's landslides in Rangamati. With his death yesterday, the toll from the disaster in the hill district stood at 115. 

A driver by profession, Nabi Hossain of Notun Para in Rangamati municipality's ward-6 was one of the first to alert his community members on Monday night about a possible landslide.

When landslides were about to begin, he urged all to move to safety over the loudspeaker from a local mosque and thus saving most of the people from 180 families in the area.

However, some 40 people of ward-6 were left dead in the tragedy. They include Nabi's wife Hazera Begum, 45, daughters Ruma, 22 and Rina, 15, granddaughter Nuria, 4, and son Sohag, 13, and a house tutor. Another son Sumon and son-in-law Sohel Rana were badly injured along with him.

Talking to The Daily Star, Sumon and Sohel narrated how things unfolded that morning.

Both had been admitted to Rangamati General Hospital along with Nabi until Saturday afternoon.

From the hospital, Nabi was sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital after his condition deteriorated on Saturday. He breathed his last at Eden Multi-Care Hospital in Dhaka around 9:30pm yesterday.

“When a sudden onrush of water was coming down from the hill, my father dug a trench for draining water. We were watching him work from our house,” Sumon said.

He was talking to this newspaper at his brother-in-law's house in Tabolchhari Sarnotila area, some 5km from Rangamati town, yesterday afternoon.

“That night, my father did not sleep at all. After Fazr prayers, he heard a chunk of soil falling from an adjacent hill. He immediately went to the local mosque and started asking people over the loudspeaker to come out of their houses and take shelter at safe places.”

Nabi then came back to his family and asked all to get ready to leave. “We were about to go out of our house in two groups. Suddenly, a huge chunk of soil fell on our house and buried all of us,” Suman said.

“I was half buried and only heard the voice of my brother-in-law. My mother, sisters and brother died on the spot,” he said.

“While leaving the Rangamati hospital, my father urged me to forgive him. I said we have no complaint against him.... That was my last conversation with him.”

Suman's voice became heavy and could not go on.

Abdul Khalek, a next-door neighbour, said, “From 2:00am till Fazr prayers, Nabi Bhai walked around the locality to see whether any house was damaged.”

Several others, including Mehedi Hasan, Shahed Iqbal and Md Siddiqur, risked their lives to save others.

Locals and firefighters rescued Nabi along with Suman and Sohel. At the time of the disaster, his eldest son Mohammed Rubel was in Khagrachhari where he serves in Border Guard Bangladesh.

News of his death has deeply saddened his community members, most of whom have taken shelter at Bangladesh Betar substation in Rangamati. He was widely respected in his area, they said.

Nabi's body reached there from Dhaka around 10:00pm. His sons, relatives, colleagues, neighbours could not hold back tears.

His namaj-e-janaza was held at the Tennis Court mosque in Muslimpara area around 11:30pm. He was buried at the Army Camp mosque graveyard shortly afterwards, locals who took part in his janaza said.

Rangamati yesterday experienced downpours accompanied by thunder and lightning since morning. Such heavy rains were not seen in the last five days in the district.

The government allocated additional 200 tonnes of rice and Tk 25 lakh as relief after the number of people at shelter centres jumped to 2,500 from 2,100 on Saturday, said district administration spokesperson KM Ikhtiar Uddin Arafat.

The number of shelter centres also rose to 19 from 16 and the army was given responsibility of coordinating seven of those centres and police, BGB and Red Crescent four each.

The supplies of fuel and everyday essentials became normal as the government made transportations through waterways free of cost for all the traders, added Arafat.

Army personnel continued their repair work at Shapchhari point of Rangamati-Chittagong highway where the road was badly affected by landslides. 

Four traders were fined in the town for selling essentials at higher prices, said Sohel Rana, an executive magistrate who is leading one of the market monitoring teams.