DHAKA: When Sharif Sheikh spoke to his Lebanon-based younger brother Karim Miah over the phone in the early hours of Monday, discussing his safety amid Israel’s war on the country was inevitable.
“He said everything was fine with him despite the war situation. But that ‘fine’ didn’t last for him,” Sheikh told Arab News.
It was the last time they spoke.
On Monday afternoon, Miah was killed by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, which also took the lives of three other Bangladeshi migrant workers.
The 45-year-old had been living and working in a flour mill factory in the Mayfadoun area in Nabatieh for the last 10 years, supporting his wife and two children back home in Bangladesh’s central Narsingdi district.
“He was a very responsible father. Miah left one son and daughter. I don’t know what will happen now with my nephew and niece,” said Sheikh, who had been close and spoke regularly with Miah on the phone.
“Our family is engulfed with deep sadness. We are at a loss over what to do.”
Since Israel began its war on Lebanon on March 2, more than 2,800 people, including medical workers, have been killed, while over a million others were displaced.
Israel’s offensive has included widespread airstrikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, which has continued despite a US-mediated ceasefire reached last month.
As the war increasingly put millions of migrant workers in the Middle East at risk, in Lebanon alone the clashes have killed at least five Bangladeshi nationals.
Of around 7 million Bangladeshis who work overseas, the majority are in the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia hosting around half of the total.
This week, the number of Bangladeshis killed in the Middle East reached at least 11 since the US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on Feb. 28 and triggered a conflict across the region.
On Wednesday evening, the Bangladeshi Embassy in Beirut said in a statement that Miah’s body “may be under the rubble,” adding that neither the Lebanese Army nor the Lebanese Red Cross could recover his remains “due to security risks.”
But local authorities have managed to recover the body of Sree Shuvo Kumar Das, who was also killed on Monday in the same location as Miah in Mayfadoun.
Das’ sibling, Sree Shanto Das, said his 23-year-old brother was supposed to come home later this month.
“He went to Lebanon three years ago. His three-year contract in Lebanon was supposed to complete on May 27th,” Shanto told Arab News.
Shuvo Kumar was not only the family’s breadwinner, but also a “very kind-hearted man and a good soul.”
When news of his death came, their neighbors in the southwestern Bangladeshi district of Satkhira had “cried over the tragic and untimely death of my brother,” Shanto said.
“He was loved by all in our community due to his good and gentle behavior.”
Shuvo Kumar last spoke with his mother hours before he was killed on Monday, and the two had talked about his plans to return to Bangladesh.
“He used to call me or mother almost every day. He looked after every small issue and needs of our family. But now, we lost all our hopes. Who will look after the family now? His dream was to build a new house for our family, and he also wanted to eventually marry off our only sister. But everything is lost now,” Shanto said.
“It’s a bolt out of the blue for our family. This Iran-Israel-US war took away our dreams. I don’t understand why the world can’t resist Israeli aggression?”
