Leaving home for earning bread, day labourers return in coffin

Dawn had not yet fully broken. After offering the Fajr prayer, they walked toward the Erulia labour market—some with a towel draped over their shoulders, others carrying a small bag with the few belongings they owned.

Like every other morning, they stood there hoping someone would call their name, hire them for a day's work, and by sunset they would return home with 700 taka in their pockets—enough to buy rice, vegetables, and perhaps a few necessities for their families.

But that dawn became the darkest morning of their lives. The men who had come to sell nothing but their labour were crushed beneath a speeding bus. The marketplace where wages are negotiated every morning was instead covered in blood, cries, and unbearable grief on Friday (August 7).

Seven people who had arrived seeking a day's work never returned home alive. The labour market at Erulia in Bogura Sadar is a lifeline for poor families across northern Bangladesh. Agricultural workers travel here from Rangpur, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Naogaon, and other districts in search of daily employment.

Many arrive the previous evening and spend the night in inexpensive local boarding houses. They sleep shoulder to shoulder in crowded rooms, paying only 20 taka each for a place to rest. Before sunrise they gather in the market, waiting for farmers or contractors to choose them for a day's work.

At the end of the day, they earn around 700 taka. Some stay for a week, hoping to save enough money to buy rice and lentils. Others dream of returning home with new clothes for their wives and children. That is the story of their lives.

For Nur Mohammad, a farmer from Sardarpara village in Kahaloo upazila, the day began like any other. After saying his morning prayers, he left home looking for work.He never came back. His family is still waiting—but no longer for the man they love. They are waiting for his body.
A father and son had also travelled together in search of work.

They were Amirul Hossain and his son Hurayra, from Kandiya Enayetpur village in Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha. The father was killed in the crash. His son now lies in hospital with critical injuries.

Another worker from the same village, Shahid, had come with the same hope of earning an honest living. He too now lies lifeless in a hospital morgue. The men who spent their lives helping crops grow in other people's fields could not harvest the dreams they carried for their own families.

A child will wait forever for a father who will never return. An elderly mother will never again hear her son's footsteps at the door.

A wife will keep waiting for the voice that will never call her name again. The men who left home at dawn with nothing more than the hope of putting food on the family table are now returning wrapped in white burial shrouds.

Workers at the market said the area is usually crowded before sunrise as hundreds gather to sell their labour for the day.

This morning, however, the ground was covered with the bodies of the dead and the injured. Some people screamed the names of missing relatives. Some writhed in pain. Others never responded again. Only their motionless bodies remained.

According to fellow workers, seven people were killed, most of them agricultural labourers. Police and local sources said a Shah Fateh Ali passenger bus was travelling from Dhaka to Naogaon when the accident occurred. Near Erulia on the Bogura–Naogaon regional highway, the driver reportedly applied sudden brakes while trying to avoid a motorcycle. The bus then struck an electric pole, causing the driver to lose control before it ploughed into the roadside labour market. No passengers on the bus were reported injured.

Officials at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital said three people died at the scene, while 21 injured victims were taken to the hospital.

Four of those later died while receiving treatment, raising the death toll to seven. Seventeen others remain under medical care.

Bogura Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md. Abdul Wazed said authorities have so far confirmed seven deaths and that the family of each victim will receive Tk 25,000 in financial assistance.

For the families left behind, however, no amount of compensation can replace what was lost. They had set out before sunrise carrying only hope on their shoulders. By sunset, they were on their way home—not as workers returning after a long day's labour, but as silent bodies, carried back to the people who had been waiting for them.