Barishal accident: Highway blocked; driver’s highest punishment demanded

A day after seven people were killed in a road crash in Barishal, students and locals today blocked Barishal-Dhaka highway for one and a half hours demanding the highest punishment of the bus driver arrested soon after the accident.

Several hundred students of Barishal Government BM College along with locals put barricade on the highway at Notullabad point around 10:00am, halting vehicular movement on the highway.

Barishal police officials went to the spot and assured the protesters of justice. The police also requested them to remove the blockade and let vehicles pass on the highway.

Following that, the protesters then called off the protest around 12:30 pm, our local correspondent reports quoting Abdur Rahman Mukut, officer-in-charge (OC) of Airport Police Station.

On the other hand, the transport workers observed a strike till 12noon protesting the arrest of their fellow driver Abdul Jalil.

No bus left the Notullabad Bus Stand in the city till noon following the strike, the correspondent reports from the spot.

HOW DID THE ACCIDENT OCCUR?

Seven people, including three women and a child, were killed and six others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a three-wheeler in Barishal's Banaripara upazila yesterday morning.

Immediately after the accident, the bus driver, Abdul Jalil, fled leaving the vehicle right there. However, he was arrested in Barishal's Babuganj upazila later at night.

Both the vehicles were seized.