In its 97 years of history, the school never experienced anything like this. On the second day of Mirsarai road crash that killed its 33 students, everywhere there was a deep sense of sadness.
Almost all the students and teachers of Abu Torab Bahumukhi High School in Mayani union under Mirsarai upazila were present at the school yesterday. But all sorts of academic activities were suspended.
Its small playground has been filled with hundreds of people including government high ups and journalists since Monday.
Many students were walking like zombies along the school verandas. Some were blankly staring at strangers.
A small group of class-VIII students were found weeping in the corner of their classroom. They lost 11 classmates including the first boy, Dhruba Nath Sujan, in the road wreck.
Nusrat Jahan Shetu, one of the mourners, said all of the 11 were bright and meritorious.
"Especially, Sujan, who won Talentpool scholarship in class-V, was the best and we expected he would successfully pass the junior scholarship exam scheduled for the end of this year," said Shetu as she choked back tears.
In the adjacent room, gathered class-IX students. Ten of their classmates were among the 44 who died on Monday when a truck carrying schoolboys back from watching a football match fell into a water-filled ditch.
Lovely Sultana, Khaleda Akhter, Rahela Akhter, Bipasha Das and a few others cried out when asked about their dead friends.
Moments later, Rahela, controlling her emotion, said Monday around 9:00am she saw all the ten boys get in a running truck.
They were heading for Mirsarai Stadium to watch a football match between Abu Torab Govt Primary School and Moghadia Anjumanunnesa Government Primary School, she said.
Also, at the corridors, parents of some victims were crying, often embracing the teachers.
Students of nearby schools also joined the mourning. Amjad, a student of Moghadia Nurul Absar High School, said many of the victims had been their friends.
It was also difficult for Gopal Chandra Das, a fourth class employee who has been working here since 1988, to bear the pain.
But he had to carry out his duties at a stress for the sake of a mourning rally scheduled on the school premises yesterday.
Teachers, too, got little time to mourn as they were busy with activities centring the rally.
Talking to The Daily Star, Headmaster Jafar Sadek could only say, "It is the saddest time of my life."
Mohammad Yunus, an assistant teacher, who taught for the last 25 years in the school, said, "As soon as we rushed to the accident site [on Monday], we saw bodies of my loved children lying in a row on the road.
"Neither I could sleep the whole night nor could I eat. I was just thinking about the innocent faces and trying to feel how they suffered.
"We taught them, sometimes rebuked; but now I miss my students very much."
Source : The Daily Star
