Father, daughter die in Ctg landslide

When Sharifa Begum composed herself, there was not much she could say.

"What would I live for now?" she said.

Surrounded by relatives at her home in the port city's Sholashar Railway colony, the 28-year woman looked all pale. When asked why she and her family chose to live on the slope of a hill, she mumbled a few words before saying, "Poverty forced us to live here ..."

Evidently, she had more to say by way of explanation but she fainted before she could finish.

Earlier in the day, around 6:00am, her husband and seven-month-old daughter were killed in a landslide triggered by incessant rain early morning yesterday.

The deceased were Mohammad Sohel, 35, and his seven-month-old daughter Bibi Jannat, said Nurul Alam, police camp in-charge of Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH).

It was by sheer luck that Sharifa and her other daughter, 11-year Bibi Kulsum, survived the landslide. However, both of them sustained injuries.

Visiting Sharifa's house, this correspondent found that grief and sorrow hung heavy on everyone present there.

The couple eked out a living selling tea at the Sholashar railway station.

Sohel, a resident of Sharshdi union in Feni, came to the port city two decades ago to earn a living.

"We heard a loud noise. After that, we went to my uncle's house and found that they got trapped under earth and bricks," Bibi Fatema, a niece of Sohel, told The Daily Star yesterday.

"All four members of the family got trapped when a portion of a hill fell on their thatched hut in a slum built on the slope of a hill," said Abdullah Harun Pasha, deputy assistant director (DAD) of Chattogram Fire Service and Civil Defence.

However, two of them were declared dead when taken to the hospital, he added.

Visiting the colony, this correspondent found that more than a hundred families are still living precariously on the slope.

Residents alleged that Abdul Khalek, an employee of Bangladesh Railway (BR) engineering department, built the houses by cutting the hill where the landslide occurred.

Mohammed Farid, a BR staff who lived in the colony, told The Daily Star that Khalek destroyed the hill and built houses on it and rented those to low-income people.

Abidur Rahman, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Chattogram, said, "We suspended Khalek for cutting a hill and building structures on railway land illegally."

"We have formed a three-member committee headed by the divisional engineer to investigate the landslide incident in the railway colony. The committee has been asked to submit the inquiry report within seven working days. Besides, we have already started operations to evict illegal structures from the colony," the DRM added.

Abdul Khalek could not be reached as of filing this report, despite repeated attempts.

Meanwhile, vehicular movement on Mohalchhari-Guimara road remains suspended since yesterday morning due to another landslide incident in Guimara upazila of Khagrachhari.

Ajoy Tripura, a resident of Guimara, said, "Many vehicles were stranded in the area due to landslides on the road."

Rajib Chowdhury, upazila nirbahi officer of Guimara, said, "A portion of the hill collapsed and snapped road communication. However, Mohalchhari-Guimara road will be reopened soon as we have already started soil removal work."

(Our Rangamati correspondent Laltanlian Pangkhua contributed to this report)