Nur Alam had briefly left his wife and five-year-old son in Cox’s Bazar to return to Dhaka for urgent work on Thursday night.
That brief departure created an irreplaceable void in his life, as his wife, Fariya Kabir, 33, and their son, Fayizan Ahmed, 5, tragically lost their lives when a devastating fire swept through a resort in the Inani area on Saturday morning.
Fariya and her young son were among 10 tourists who died in the blaze at Toptop Resto & Resort, situated at Patuartek along Marine Drive near Inani Beach under Ukhiya.
According to family sources, Nur Alam works as a senior marketing officer at the pharmaceutical organisation Drug International in Chuadanga, where he resided with his family in a rented house in the town’s Dakshin Hospital Para neighbourhood.
The family had arrived in Cox’s Bazar for a holiday on 14 October, before tragedy struck early on Saturday around 7am.
Six of the deceased tourists have been identified as Ishrat Jahan Maliha, 30, and Melita Mehjabin Alvi, 23, both from the Banasree area of Dhaka; Laila Jahan Nabila, 27, and Nafista Mim, 27, from the capital’s Khilgaon area; and Fariya Kabir, 33, and her child Fayizan Ahmed, 5, from Chuadanga district.
Six others sustained injuries in the fire. The injured have been named as Dr Shahab Uddin, 31, a physician at Mugda Medical College Hospital; his wife Nafiza Nawar Khan, 29; Mannan, 34; Meherunnesa, 30; Masud, 30; and Samida, 32.
Following the tragic loss of life, police detained the resort manager, Mohammad Suman. He was taken into custody from the resort area on Saturday afternoon by officers from Ukhiya Police Station.
