Malda: Abdul Mateen of Dhangara village of Malatipur, Malda, miraculously survived the train accident in Baleshwar and returned home. The incident has left him shaken and he is in trauma.
Mateen, who had been working as a construction worker in other states for a long time, came home for Eid and stayed at home for some time. He left home for Kerala on Thursday afternoon. The plan was to take Coromandel Express to Chennai first and then to Kerala from Chennai.
On Sunday the 32-year-old returned home. “It is sheer luck that saved me. I can’t forget the most frightful night ever. All around me was blood and corpses. A young girl was asking for water. It felt like I was walking through hell” recounted Mateen.
Mateen has three daughters and one son along with aged parents and his wife at home. “I will never go outside Bengal to work ever again. I will stay with my family,” added Mateen.
A total of 28 persons from Malda have been affected in the Odisha train tragedy. This includes 2 deaths and 7 persons missing. One of the dead bodies will reach Malda on Sunday night.
The Mukherjee couple from Raiganj, North Dinajpur also had a narrow escape. Gautam Mukherjee and Srabani Mukherjee of Ramendrapally in Raiganj have returned to Kolkata. Gautam Mukherjee, over telephone, said: “We were travelling to Chennai for treatment when the accident occurred. We can’t even imagine that we survived.”
(With inputs from Raiganj)