Khokon Chandra Das opened a pharmacy at Keurbhanga Bazar 20 years ago. In the hope of supplementing his income, he later added mobile banking services to the same shop. The livelihood of his entire household, his elderly father, wife and three children, depended solely on his earnings.
Following Khokon Das’s death, there is now no one in the family capable of running the shop. Caught between fear for their safety and deep financial uncertainty, the family has been left completely disoriented.
Khokon Das was the son of Paresh Chandra Das of Tilai village in Damudya upazila, Shariatpur. On Wednesday night, assailants attacked him in the Tilai area, slashing him before dousing his body with a petrol-like substance and setting him alight. He died on Saturday while undergoing treatment at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka.
Paresh Chandra Das filed a case in connection with the attack at Damudya police station on Thursday night against three men—Sohag Khan, 28, Rabbi Mollah, 24 and Palash Sardar, 25 of the upazila’s Kaneshwar area.
Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the three accused from Kishoreganj late on Saturday night. On Sunday night, a court granted a two-day remand for their interrogation.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, Paresh Chandra Das said, “I am an old man. I cannot move about on my own. My only son Khokon was my last support in life. Now that he is gone, what am I to live for, what hope do I have? And who will look after my daughter-in-law and my grandchildren?”
He added, “Khokon recognised his attackers and named them while he was in hospital. Based on that, I filed the case. Now I keep hearing whispers that they may attack us as well.”
Khokon Das is survived by three sons—Biswajit Das, 21, Shanta Das, 16, and Ador Das, 4. After completing his Higher Secondary Certificate, Biswajit went to Russia last year in search of work. Shanta is a Class-X student at a local school.
Wiping away tears, Khokon’s wife, Sima Das, said, “The shop was our only means of running the household. Now that too is closed. My eldest son in Russia is still not earning anything. I don’t know how I will manage this family.”
Commenting that the assailants knew Khokon would return home late at night carrying cash along that secluded road, Khokon Das’s neighbour and relative Nikhil Das said the attackers looted Tk 600,000 and then brutally slashed and burned him to death.
“Since this incident, everyone in the area is living in fear,” he said.
Assuring security for the bereaved family, Damudya police station officer-in-charge Mohammad Rabiul Haque told Prothom Alo that a charge sheet would be submitted as swiftly as possible and the accused brought to justice.