People gathered this morning around four bodies lying side by side at a family home in Bandarajar Para, under Lalanagar union of Chattogram’s Rangunia upazila. Some were relatives, some neighbours, and others had come from nearby villages. Some wiped away tears; others stood in silence.

This is the house the four brothers had built through years of hard work abroad -- a symbol of a shared dream and a family’s rise from hardship.

Two of the brothers were expected to return home on May 15. Today, all four returned together in four coffins.

The bodies reached their village home around 5:00am.

Brothers Rashedul Islam, Shahedul Islam, Sahidul Islam, and Sirajul Islam died on the night of May 12 in Oman.

According to relatives, Omani police recovered their bodies from a vehicle. A postmortem reportedly found toxic gas exposure to be the cause of death, with authorities suspecting gas leakage from a vehicle's air-conditioning system.

The brothers had turned their lives around after years of struggle.

Their father died when the youngest was only two years old. Despite difficult circumstances, their mother looked after them to the best of her ability.

A relative, Ruma Akter, standing outside the house in tears, recalled how the second brother had first left for Oman around 12 years ago. Eventually, the other three followed, established two car-washing businesses, and gradually became financially stable.

"They bought land and built a new home. Two of them had only recently married. The second brother got married just eight months ago before returning abroad. Everything was finally falling into place," said Ruma.

Four years ago, the brothers bought around 30 decimals of land and began building the family home. Though the ground floor remains unfinished, it has already become a symbol of what migration and sacrifice had brought them.

In one of the rooms was their mother, who had fallen ill after receiving the news. Under doctors' advice, she had been sedated and was barely speaking.

At 11:00am, thousands gathered at the Hosnabad Lalanagar High School grounds for the janaza. The crowd overflowed beyond the field, with many standing on nearby roads after running out of space.

Enamul Haque, the brothers' surviving sibling and a teacher at a local madrasa, led the funeral prayer himself.

Earlier, when he took the microphone to address mourners, he could barely speak. He struggled through tears and managed only a few words: "Please forgive my brothers."

Maulana Idris, president of the Bandarajar Para Jaame Mosque committee, said even arranging the funeral had become a challenge.

"We did not have enough biers to carry all four bodies together. We had to bring three more from nearby mosques," he said.

Among the mourners was schoolteacher Jaker Hossain from neighbouring Moriyom Nagar union. "I had never heard of four brothers dying together like this. I couldn't stay home after hearing it."

After the funeral prayers, the brothers were buried side by side in the graveyard next to the local mosque.

As people left, empty coffins were left behind. Relatives drifted away in small groups.

The house that the brothers built remains; only they could not live in it.