JOIN USFor Ahan, who turns two on August 22, his favourite toy is a blue car sent by his father Kaushik Chakraborty. For the toddler, the word “Taliban” means nothing, just as “death” does not and he will never get to see his father, who fell to Taliban bullets in faraway Kabul.
When the news of his father’s demise reached the Chakraborty household at Srinathpur village in the Nadia district of West Bengal, around 82 km from Kolkata, Ahan was sitting amid a bunch of toys and playing with the same blue car.
Kaushik, 29, father of Ahan, husband of Deblina and son of Sushanta, was among the three Indians who lost their lives in the Taliban attack on a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) compound in Kabul on July 2. He was working as a cook for the last two years with a private agency that supplies food to people living in the residential compound meant for Nato officials and personnel.
The Bengali youth had sufficient experience in cooking at foreign destinations, a vocation he had pursued for the last seven years.
He had worked with different agencies that supply cooks, gardeners and other service staff to different parts of the globe. Sushanta said over telephone that Kaushik had earlier worked in Singapore and some other parts of South and West Asia.
Sushanta, who works with the state forest department as an armed guard, said Kaushik was expected to return home after a year and start a business near home with the money he was saving up. He was also sending money home, which helped his father to turn their temporary structure into a brick and mortar house, with a proper roof over their heads instead of corrugated asbestos sheets and a fresh coat of paint for the walls.
“He had worked as a cook at Baghdad in Iraq for the same company. So he was not worried about Kabul. We would get worried over reports of blasts and attack but he used to assure us that things were fine,” the bereaved father said. The details of the tragedy are still sketchy and the family is yet to know about the circumstances under which Kaushik died.
When Sushanta got a call from the local administration, he decided to keep the news to himself until further information. However, the sight of his daughter-in-law wearing “sindoor” on the forehead and the pair of coral and conch bangles (traditionally worn by married Bengali women) made it difficult for him to hide it and he had to divulge the tragic news.
District Superintendent of Police Sabyasachi Raman Mishra, who sent the messengers to the Chakraborty residence following instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), refused to comment on the situation.
A senior official, however, said: “Chakraborty was returning to his quarters along with two others when they were caught in the attack and killed. We are in touch with the MHA to work out how to get his body back to his family. We have no idea about the body’s condition since we are yet to know whether he was hit by bullets or died in the blast.”
Udupi man killed in Afghan blast
A 34-year-old accountant from Bailakere at Malpe in Udupi district was killed in a bomb blast in Afghanistan on Tuesday, reports DHNS from Udupi.
The deceased, Vikram Martis, was deputed to Afghanistan by the United Nations Organisation and was employed with the Nato forces for the last two years. He died on July 2 in a bomb blast at his office.
Sources said John’s brother in Dubai had gone to Afghanistan to receive the body.