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An unknown had rescued his wife and taken her out of the coach where many were lying dead, while another offered them a lift to Kolkata

Family from Bangladesh indebted to ‘strangers’

A number of unknow people helped the

Monalisa Chaudhuri Kolkata Published 05.06.23, 04:51 AM

A Bangladeshi national on his maiden visit to India was in the S-4 coach of the 12841 Coromandel Expressthat met with a deadly accident near Odisha’s Balasore on Friday evening.

S-4 was one of the coaches that toppled over. Habibur Rahaman, who had his 5-year-old son sitting on his lap, managed to come out of the coach, grabbing his child in one hand.

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Once out of the coach, he kept his son in the custody of a stranger, requesting the man to look after him till he turned. The 38-year-old went back inside looking for his wife, who he thought was dead.

As a distraught Habibur climbed out of the coach screaming wife Chameli’sname, he found her lying injured on the side of the overturned coach that now faced the sky.

A stranger had rescued his wife and taken her out of the coach where many were lying dead.

Rahaman, a resident ofDariapur in Bogra district in Bangladesh, narrated toMetro over the phone how he and his family were helped by people they had never known before:

This was my first visit to India. I was going to Vellore for my son Rahi Sadik’streatment. He was sitting on my lap. My wife Chameli was sitting next to me. Suddenly there was a huge jerk and all lights in the coach went off.

There was commotion inside and it seemed the world was turning upside down. I realised our train had got derailed.

The turbulent motion of the train came to a screeching halt in a few seconds. Then there were loud screams for help all around me. In that complete darkness I was struggling to hold my son as people were falling on each other from all sides.

I managed to grab my child and wriggle out of the coach. Once we were out, I requested the first person I met, who, too, had just climbed out of the train, to keep my son in his custody. He was a stranger but agreed at once.

I went back inside the compartment, which was a hellhole with bodies and blood all over and people screaming from everywhere. I returned to my seat and found one of my bags where I had kept all our documents, including the passports.

But Chameli was nowhere around.

I started looking around for her, screaming her name. But there was no response.

I exited the coach, still calling out my wife’s name when I suddenly heard her feeble voice. A stranger had pulled her out of a heap of mangled bodies and made her lie on the side of the overturned coach.

A third stranger, who said he was coming to Calcutta, gave us a lift in his car and also offered us money. On Sunday morning, we took a bus to thePetrapole border. We are back in Bangladesh.

I don’t know how to thank these strangers.

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