Couple meet tragic end on way to work

Akash Iqbal and his wife Maya Hazarika were young millennials who were working hard to build a life in the city, but a bus ran over them and their dreams yesterday.

They were on their way to work on their motorcycle when a bus of Ajmeri Glory Paribahan rammed them from behind.

The incident happened on Airport Road around 7:00am. When the bus hit their motorcycle, the couple were thrown onto the highway and the bus driver, attempting to escape, drove the vehicle over Akash's head and Maya's torso, said Sub-inspector Imran Hossain, the case's investigation officer at Airport Police Station.

The couple, who have a five-year-old daughter, died on the spot.

Akash, 26, and Maya, 25, were on their way to work, informed their cousin Mizanur Rahman Mintu. The husband worked for a civil engineering construction firm while Maya was a barista at Hotel Lake Castle in Gulshan-2.

The duo lived with their daughter, Afra Anjum, in a small rented two-room flat in Dakshinkhan's Mollartek. Every morning before work, they would drop Afra off with Maya's mother and sister for the day.

"Akash was a village boy from Faridpur and Maya was a city girl. Eight years ago, Akash came to Dhaka to do computer training, right after his SSC exams, and that is where he met Maya and they started talking," said Akash's aunt Rupa Begum.

"Maya's family was pressuring her to marry someone else, so they [Akash and Maya] eloped. They had not even sat for their HSC exams then. I gave them shelter in my house because Maya's family refused to accept their marriage," continued Rupa.

Both completed their HSC exam after marriage while working full-time jobs.

"They had just bought the motorcycle 11 months ago to have an easier commute," said Maya's sister Reshma. "They had also just gotten their daughter admitted to playgroup three days ago, and were waiting for her school to start."

Their Facebook profiles reveal whimsical posts about their dreams and aspirations, their love for each other and their precious daughter.

Meanwhile the bus's driver is on the run, said SI Imran.

According to media reports, Ajmeri Glory Paribahan buses killed a mother and her daughter in Gazipur in February 2020, and two more people in Gazipur in 2018.

Maya's father Manik Miah filed a case with the police station, demanding justice.

"Their bodies have been taken to Faridpur to be buried together. They were so in love when alive, that they should be together after death," said their aunt Rupa.