Hiker’s dream of climbing Everest ends in road crash

The life of a mountaineer was cut short at the age of 34 as a microbus hit her bicycle on Lake Road, adjacent to Chandrima Udyan, in the capital yesterday morning.

Reshma Nahar Ratna was also a teacher at Ayub Ali Government Primary School in New Market area. She was from Narail and used to live in Mirpur.

The microbus fled after the incident.

On being informed, police rushed to the spot and took Reshma to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared her dead, Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad, inspector (investigation) of Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Police Station, told The Daily Star.

He said the victim died probably when she was being taken to the hospital.

The body was kept at the hospital morgue, he said in the afternoon, adding that they were yet to trace the microbus and detain its driver.

Reshma's brother-in-law Moniruzzaman said they filed a case with the police station over the incident.

Reshma did her basic mountaineering course from Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in India's Uttarakhand. She scaled the Keokradong peak in Bandarban in 2016, said her family members.

She also scaled the Stok Kangri (6,153 metres), the highest mountain in the Stok Range of the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of north India, last year. Besides, she used to run marathons and cycle, they said.

One of Reshma's friends, Sakhawat Hossain, said she was a member of the Bishwa Sahitya Kendra's study circle. "She was dreaming she would go up the Everest one day and was preparing for it. But with her, that dream is gone too," Sakhawat added.