Another hit-and-run in Mirpur sparks agitation

A fall from a rickshaw was not supposed to be a fatal accident for Masud Rana, a final year BBA student of a private university, but it ended up costing his life as the bus that hit his rickshaw showed no sign of slowing down, and ran him over on Bangladesh National Zoo Road in Mirpur yesterday.

Masud was on his way to his university when the bus crashed into his rickshaw out of nowhere, according to OC Hossain. He was killed just 200 yards away from his campus.

Agitated fellow students of Bangladesh University of Business and Technology (BUBT) and adjacent Dhaka Commerce College took to the streets and blocked a road in Mirpur after the incident, the second such death in two days in the area.

The demonstrators failed to stop the Dishari Paribahan bus, but vandalised some 10 others.

“We waited till 12 noon for police to arrest the driver,” Mosharraf Hossain Shami, a student taking part in the blockade, told The Daily Star.

The road block was lifted from Mirpur-10 and near Sony Cinema Hall around 3:00pm, said Anwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Shah Ali Police Station.

Roadside vendor Pinky Akhtar, an eyewitness on the accident, said Masud would not be killed if the driver stopped the bus after hitting the rickshaw.

Masud was rushed to the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopadic Rehabilitation (NITOR) where doctors declared him dead, said police.

Vice Chancellor of BUBT, Prof Md Abu Saleh said it is not an accident, but a murder. He said all classes and examinations of the university were suspended after the incident.

On Sunday, Shahriar Sourov Sejan, 28, was killed in a road accident on Kalshi flyover.