Tangail and Gazipur Correspondent:
A man was killed after being bitten by a snake while he was fishing in a beel near his house with his neighbours.
The incident took place around 9pm on Friday. Relatives first took him to a traditional healer, also known as Ojha locally, in an injured condition.
Later, he was taken to Kumudini Hospital in Mirzapur, Tangail. The patient died on Saturday while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
The deceased was identified as Saiful Islam, 40. He is the son of Yunus Ali of Basura village in Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur.
Locals said Saiful’s namaz-e-janaza was scheduled to be held on Saturday.
When the relatives completed all preparations for his burial, two Ojha (one woman and one man) from Savar came to Saiful’s house.
They told Saiful’s relatives that they could bring Saiful back to life. They tried to convince the family members of the deceased that they could bring the dead person back to life and succeeded. Not only that, they also claimed to have resurrected a person who died seven days ago due to a snake bite.
Assured by their words, Saiful’s relatives did not bury the body despite all the preparations.
Hearing this, the curious people around the village took position around the land and saw their activities.
In the afternoon, the healers arranged to remove poison from Saiful’s body by keeping banana trees and pots in the fallow land beside the deceased’s house. They took Tk15,000 from the family members as well to bring Saiful back to life.
Later, they left for Savar in the evening saying that they would bring medicines at night and complete the rest of the work. However, they never came back.
Later, Saiful’s body was buried at 8am on Sunday.
Kaliakoir Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abul Fazal Mohammad Nasim said: “I heard that a man named Saiful died while undergoing treatment at the hospital. The relatives of the deceased hope that healers can make Saiful come back to life!
He, however, dodged the question of whether he would take any action against the healers.