Eleven-year-old Fatema Akter is still in disbelief that her mother is no more, despite watching helplessly as her mother was engulfed by a stampede on Monday.

The third-grader at a local primary school in South Dehmsha village of Satkania went to collect iftar essentials with her mother Rina Akter, 36, early on the day.

Seeing excessive crowd on the spot at Gatiyadanga village of the upazila, her mother did not allow her to stand in the queue. She herself stood in line and left her daughter nearby at a safe space.

“She was waving at me from the queue and gestured to me to stay safe,” Fatema told this correspondent. “When the gate opened, I heard a sudden commotion in the queue. All the women ran towards it hurriedly, and some of them fell down.”

“I was trying to find my mother but I did not see her as women were falling down on one another,” she continued, adding, “I got frightened and started crying for my mother, until a local person took me away from the spot.”

“As the situation calmed down, I came back to the spot looking for my mother but in vain,” she said. “Then an uncle of mine said that my mother was lying unconscious at a corner... I rushed there, and kept calling out to her but she did not reply.”

“I never heard my mother's voice again,” she burst into tears.

Nurul Amin, an uncle of Fatema, said his niece cannot sleep at night since the incident. “She wakes up in the middle of the night and starts crying,” said Amin.

Fatema's younger brother Raihan, 6, still does not understand that his mother is no more. He thinks she has gone some place.

Amin said extreme poverty prompted his sister to go there to collect iftar essentials. Fatema's father, Md Hasan, is a truck driver.

Most of the women who went to collect iftar items on Monday were either beggars, widows or from marginal income groups.

This correspondent spoke to four injured women who were admitted to Satkania Upazila Health Complex after the mishap. Of them, Rokeya Begum, 40, a widow, and Hosne Ara, 35, were beggars while Rabeya Khatun, 55, a widow, and Nur Ayesha, 50, worked as a domestic help.

Dr Sadia Tabassum, a medical officer of the health complex, said a fracture was found in Hosne Ara's waist, and she needed better treatment. “We referred her to Chittagong Medical College Hospital on Monday but she is still here,” said the doctor.

Hosne Ara said she came from a remote village of Lohagara upazila to collect iftar essentials.

“I borrowed Tk 150 from someone to come here, and now I don't have any money. How will I go to CMCH and who will look after me?” she said.

All the injured undergoing treatment at the health complex said they did not get any financial assistance so far. “No one contacted us,” said Hosne Ara.

Aside from their physical injuries, the injured women were also traumatised by the incident.

“I cannot believe I am alive. I fell down like many others; my sister-in-law Bulu Akter, was with me but she died in the stampede right in front of my eyes... I can't forget those scenes.”

Nine women were killed and around 25 injured in a stampede when over 30,000 people gathered to collect zakat and iftar essentials provided by industrial group KSRM at Anis Bari Jame Mosque ground at Gatiadanga village of Satkania upazila on May 14.