'It felt like I was reborn'

It was nothing less than a new lease of life for Ujjwal Chakraborty and for his wife Kanta Bhattacharya, who had been trapped inside Atia Mahal in Sylhet city.

"When the army men escorted us to the next building on Saturday morning, it was my second birth,” said Ujjwal, 36.

The couple was living in one of the six flats on the fourth floor of Atia Mahal where at least four militants had holed up. They were killed in an operation by the army.

Since early hours of Friday, 78 residents spent over a day before they were rescued by the army men.

Ujjwal, a fireman at the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Sylhet, and his wife Kanta, a schoolteacher, went to bed as usual on Thursday night, thinking they would have a quiet weekend.

Kanta woke up around 7:00am on Friday and started doing her household chores, but suddenly heard an announcement. She called Ujjwal hurriedly.

"There are militants in the building. Please do not get out of your rooms and keep the doors and windows closed,” they heard. The police announcement also asked the militants to surrender.

They hurriedly closed all the windows and then started panicking. They then called their relatives over the phone and heard more about the events unfolding there.

Advised by some relatives, they took shelter in the toilet and stayed there since Friday morning.

"Every moment during our stay in the toilet, we were afraid that the militants would come and kill us," Ujjwal told The Daily Star over the phone.

They were afraid to prepare food in the kitchen. Starving, they crawled to the kitchen from the toilet and had some puffed rice on Friday afternoon.

They often felt claustrophobic in the toilet and his wife fainted several times on Friday night, Ujjwal said.

“It was a horrific night,” he said. The next morning came with even more danger. It was raining heavily, he said.

They kept their phones off to save battery and only turned them on for a few minutes at a time.

Around 9:00am on Saturday, the owner of Atia Mahal called him over his mobile phone and said there were army men coming to rescue them. The building owner then handed the phone over to an army official. The army man told them to keep their hands up when they knock on their door, he added.

Ujjwal said after about 10 minutes, there were knocks at the door, but they could not believe it. He called the house owner to be sure that they were army personnel knocking on his door. The house owner confirmed and then they opened the door. The army personnel escorted them towards the balcony where there was a ladder bridging the next building. The two buildings were around five feet apart.

"As we reached the next building, it felt like we were born again,” Ujjwal said.

The army men then took them to a house, gave them food, quizzed them thoroughly and let them go at 9:00pm on Saturday.

They initially went to a hotel and headed for their village home in Sunamganj in the wee hours of Sunday.

"We thank our army and law enforcers a lot. They saved us risking their lives,” Kanta told this correspondent over the phone.

Her mother Jayantika Bhattacharya said Ujjwal was speaking in a very low voice, while Kanta was still in shock.

"Kanta told me that she still could not forget the situation in the toilet,” Jayantika said.

Like Ujjwal and Kanta, the army evacuated 76 other residents from Atia Mahal using the ladder.