Elderly couple living in cowshed for a month

Cheated by their only son, an elderly couple have been staying in their neighbour’s cowshed in Rangabali upazila for a month now.

Around three months earlier, their son Mohammad Hasan tricked them into handing over all their property on 40 decimals of land in Kawkhali village of the upazila.

The couple -- Shukkur Dewan, 70, and Sahura Begum, 65 -- realised of their son’s deception only a month ago when Hasan left home secretly and Shukkur’s brother Tajem Ali Dewan evicted them from their house, claiming that Hasan had sold all their property, including their agricultural land, to Tajem.

Since then, a neighbour sheltered Shukkur and Sahura in a cowshed. With all their four daughters married off and no other family member to care for them, their neighbours have been providing food to them.

According to locals, Hasan took his father to Galachipa upazila town around three months ago for treatment as Shukkur had been suffering from various illnesses for past few months.  

Instead of taking illiterate Shukkur to any medical facility, Hasan took his father to the land registration office in the town and convinced him to give thumbprints on a number of documents, saying that those were necessary for his treatment, they said.  

With tears rolling down his cheeks, Shukkur said, “We are now living in a neighbour’s cowshed after my son robbed me of all my property. But we once had a happy family.”

“Don’t even know where he [Hasan] went. Wish someone could tell me his whereabouts,” the old man sighed. 

Hasan left for Dhaka with his wife and does not have contact with any of the villagers, said locals.

Local union parishad Chairman ABM Abdul Mannan said he came to learn about the old couple’s plight recently from a journalist and he would enlist them in the recipients’ list of the government old age allowance.

Expressing his regret over the incident, Rangabali Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mashfaqur Rahman said he would take urgent steps so a sheltered accommodation and other necessary assistance are provided to the senior citizens.