Cousins Who Went Out for Tea in Siddique Bazar and Never Returned

Family members are mourning two cousins from the Chandpur district, who left their shop to have tea in Dhaka’s Gulistan area where a deadly blast killed several people on Tuesday. The death toll as of now is 20.

Family members and relatives are still mourning the deaths of Al Amin, 23, son of Billal Hossain of Paschim Lalpur village, and Mansur Hossain, 24, son of Mosharraf Hossain of Chengarchar village in Matlab North upazila of Chandpur district. They demanded proper investigation into the explosion.

Kawsar, the younger brother of Mansur, said Al Amin, son of his maternal aunt, visited Mansur’s shop located in Gulistan’s Phulbaria Super Market on Tuesday.

After having some conversation, Mansur and Al Amin went out of the shop around 4:15 pm, saying that they would return in 20 minutes after having tea in Siddique Bazar.

“Those 20 minutes didn’t end and they will not return,” cried Kawsar.

Later, he heard about the explosion and went out looking for them. Failing to find them, he went to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital where he found the bodies of Mansur and Al Amin.

Al Amin was a student at a private college in Dhaka.

Md Mohiuddin, officer-in-charge of Matlab North Police Station, said the bodies of the two victims were handed over to their relatives on Wednesday night.

When the mortal remains of the two young men arrived in their respective areas, a pall of gloom descended on the area.

They were buried at their respective family graveyards around 11 pm.

On Tuesday, at least 17 people were killed and over 100 were injured in a massive explosion in a 5-storey building near a BRTC bus counter in the capital’s Gulistan area.

Meanwhile, two bodies were recovered from the debris yesterday.

Musa Haider, 45, a victim succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital last night, raising the death toll to 20.

The explosion occurred around 4:50 pm on Tuesday. A sanitary materials shop on the ground floor of the building, BRAC Bank office on one of the other floors, and an adjacent 7-storey building were damaged but no building collapsed._UNB