Taijul Islam saved our life in Christchurch mosque attack: Tamim Iqbal

Tamim Iqbal, the Bangladesh batsman, went down the memory lane to the time when the national team survived in the Christchurch mosque attack back in March 2019. The southpaw recalled the horrific moments and said that had they reached the place three to four minutes earlier it would have been curtains. He also stated how Taijul Islam played a part in their survival.

The left-hander was busy playing a football match with veteran Mushfiqur Rahim due to which the team got a bit late. On the cursed day, only Nayeem Hasan and Liton Das were in the safety of the hotel. Tamim made the revelations during a Facebook Live on Saturday, May 16 with Test captain Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Taijul himself.

Taijul doesn’t wish to give up: Tamim Iqbal

“If Taijul wasn’t there that day (March 15,2019), none of us would have survived without Liton (Das) and Nayeem (Hasan). They were in the hotel then. Taijul has a nature, he doesn’t want to give up by any means. Even if we reached the mosque 1-2 minutes ago, we would not have survived,” Tamim was quoted as saying in the chat.

Tamim admitted that with Taijul playing the football match, the Bangladesh players wouldn’t have survived. “Taijul was having a one-on-one football match with Mushfiq (Mushfiqur Rahim). If Taijul hadn’t played football then, none of us would have survived,” he added.

Mahmudullah Riyad also made a delay. The vice-captain of the Tigers’ ODI and T20I side went to attend a pre-match press conference. It ended five minutes later than the scheduled time. The mosque attack took the lives of 51 even as 49 got injured. The third Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand was called off. After getting know about the attack, the players rushed back unscathed.

They fled to the Hagley Oval, the venue for the final Test. Later, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) released a statement, saying that their players were safe. After returning home, the players revealed the horrors of the moments and stated how shaken they were. The players were in the team bus when the terrorist opened fire at the mosque and even after a year, it haunts the Bangladesh cricketers.