Reckless driving on, so is death
She came to Dhaka from Rajshahi with her mother early yesterday to sit for a test at her college. The would-be doctor was supposed to head back to Rajshahi right after that.
But that was not to be.
Sadia Hasan, 23, a fifth-year student of Dhaka National Medical College, was killed after a bus rammed the CNG-run auto-rickshaw she and her mother were in on North-South Road in Bangshal around 7:00am.
The spot was just a kilometre away from her college.
The two were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where Sadia died of her wounds at 7:30am. Her mother Shahin Sultana suffered minor injuries.
This was not the only tragedy of the day. A mother and her son were killed in another road crash in Tangail. Six people were killed in two accidents in Cox's Bazar.
Sadia's ward final test was scheduled for Thursday but it got deferred to yesterday. She planned to go home after the test, and since it was postponed and she had a ticket, she had left for Rajshahi that day.
A medical student hardly gets any time to go home. Sadia was always excited about going home, said Nazmul, a friend of hers.
“Today, we are going to her home as she lies silent,” said Nazmul, who was going to Rajshahi with the body.
Sadia, a student of N-19 batch, was the quiet and smiling kind, said her mates in her hostel, where she stayed for three years.
She toiled for five years. Her dream was almost within reach as she was to become a doctor next year. She had already finished two of the three professional exams, said her batch mate Nayem Ishraq Prince.
Sahin, an assistant professor at a college in Rajshahi, and Sadia had arrived in Dhaka on a train from Horagram of Rajshahi yesterday. Her father Hasanuzzaman is a retired banker. She has a brother who is an engineer.
Sadia got into the medical college in 2012.
PROTEST
After the news of her death spread, the students of the college took to the street and blocked the Roy Saheb Bazar intersection.
They held a rally and issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the authorities concerned for the arrest of the culprit driver. They demanded his stern punishment.
“If we don't see any significant development, we will go for stronger demonstrations,” said a protester.
Asked, Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, deputy commissioner (Lalbagh Division) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said they checked the CCTV footage of the area and tracked the bus.
He hoped that they would be able to catch the culprit soon.
After the rally, protestors said reckless driving was taking lives. “We lost our friend. We can't let it go. The culprits must be punished,” one of them said.
“We have seen the verdict last week on Tareque Masud and Munier Mishuk killing, but it is unfortunate that we saw protests against the verdict,” one of them said
If they go unpunished, the killing on roads would go on, the protesters said.
They called for a protest campaign on social media #justiceforsadia.
Mohammad Abul Bashar, principal of the college, said the college expressed solidarity with the protest and that they would decide on their next course of action after discussion in the managing board.
According to a government study, at least 64 people die on the roads of Bangladesh every day.
The Daily Star received reports of 15 people killed on the roads yesterday.
Comments