The Haunted Bridge

The incident I'm about to share with you was sent to us by someone named Mostafa Shrabon. His home is in Ranarampur village, in the 2nd Sharifpur Union of Sadar Upazila, Jamalpur district. The incident he shared happened in that same Ranarampur village. It's a story from a long time ago, almost 50 years ago, around 1974 or 75. Mostafa Shrabon heard this story from his cousin, Abdus Sakur. The incident happened near a small bridge next to their school field. This small bridge is very old. Initially, it was a makeshift bridge, meaning it was often made with bamboo and wood. People could walk across it, sometimes even take their cows and goats, and even ride bicycles. It was that kind of bridge, a somewhat wide bridge. Later, around 1974 or 75, work began to build it properly. The story I'm about to tell you happened when the work had started and was about 50% complete. For some reason, the bridge construction was halted after 50% completion. Of course, the bridge was eventually built. But because the work was stopped, the laborers and engineers who were working on the bridge were no longer around. The laborers had built small houses near the bridge and were living there. Since the work was stopped, there weren't many people around.

Next to the bridge, the laborers had built a side road with earth. We usually see a side road being built next to a bridge during construction. So, there was a road like that, and people used to come and go that way. Since the work was stopped, there was hardly anyone around. A man named Nuru lived very close to the bridge. Many people called him Nuru Kaka (Uncle Nuru). His name was Nuru or Nurul, something like that. So, we'll call him Nuru Kaka.So, this Nuru Kaka, he was primarily a farmer. Besides that, he had two buffaloes and a buffalo cart. He used this cart, with the two buffaloes, to haul goods to various nearby markets. And he also had his own farmland. He would take his various crops to different markets and sell them. This incident mainly happened to this Nuru Kaka. The incident occurred on a night when Nuru Kaka went to a market with his buffalo cart. The market was called Nandina. He had gone to Nandina market with his buffalo cart loaded with paddy to sell. When he arrived at Nandina market, he saw that the price of paddy was low in that market. So, because the price of paddy was low, he didn't linger in Nandina market and quickly went to another market called Baschara.

He took the paddy to Baschara market. Since he was traveling from one market to another, and the roads weren't so developed back then, and he was traveling with a buffalo cart, it naturally took time. He finished selling the paddy quite late at night, very late. This was back in 1974 or 75, around 9, 10, or 11 PM – very late. He was returning home. It was so late that it was already midnight. When Nuru Kaka was returning after selling the paddy, he approached a bridge. He had traveled the entire way normally, without much trouble. However, just before the bridge, there was a three-way intersection. From there, he could sense the presence of something supernatural behind the cart. Since he knew a little bit about herbal medicine and exorcism, he could sense even a slight presence of such a being. Then he reached the bridge. From the three-way intersection to the bridge, there were no problems. He was on the dirt road built beside the bridge. He was driving his buffalo cart on that dirt road. The cart was light because he had sold all the paddy. When he reached the middle of that road, the cart wouldn't move forward. It wasn't that the wheels of the cart were stuck in the mud, that wasn't the case. The cart just wouldn't move. His two buffaloes were trying very hard, but the cart wouldn't budge.

So, what he thought was, he turned around and looked back, and he saw a black shadow. It wasn't clear if the figure had arms or legs or anything like that. But it was clear that the figure was holding the car back. As soon as he understood this, he immediately untied the ropes of the two buffaloes that were pulling his car. As soon as he untied the ropes, those two buffaloes were coming closer to home. They knew the way home very well; they would walk home alone. And this Nuru Kaka, he got out of the car. He thought he would try to talk to this spirit from a distance, to try and reason with it and get it to leave. So he thought he would try to talk to it nicely. But that was his mistake. As he tried to talk, from a distance, that spirit, in a moment, came through the air and attacked him. The spirit was dragging him towards the water and mud beside the bridge. At that point, Nuruj realized that it was about to bury him in the water or mud, and he had no way to escape. Because he used to write poetry a little bit, he must have treated patients possessed by such genies, and maybe that genie had attacked him. Or it could be that there were some evil genies around this bridge who had come and attacked him. At that moment, he couldn't really understand what was happening. He was trying to survive with whatever strength he had in his body, and he was screaming. At that time, what happened was, the bridge that we mentioned belonging to Dipu's brothers, Dipu Bhai's grandfather, he came out of the house to go to the washroom. Their house was near that bridge. So when he came out...

He could hear groaning and screaming sounds, so he must have realized that something bad had happened to someone nearby. The sounds were coming from near the bridge, from that direction. So, he woke everyone in the house and said, "Get up quickly, let's go towards the bridge, someone must be in danger." Then Dipu's brother, Dada, and everyone from their house quickly went that way.

Arriving there, they could see from a distance that something was struggling with a person and was dragging that person slowly towards the mud, towards the muddy water. They rushed over there. They had the torches that were common at that time, and some had hurricane lanterns. They hurried over and saw – they couldn't tell who it was from a distance – they saw that it was Nuru Kaka. So, he was rescued from there and brought home. He was rescued in an unconscious state.

The next day, when he regained consciousness, he told everyone everything. However, no further incidents happened to Nuru Kaka after that. But why the bridge construction was stopped after being 50% complete, that remains unknown. Whether there was some mysterious event or why that incorporeal being attacked Nuru Kaka in the car, whether there was any prior animosity, that also remains unknown. It remains a mystery why he was suddenly attacked. Such incidents happen a lot around us.