Father joins daughters

A poster of Siddiqur's campaign against road crash featuring the daughters he lost just a few months ago in a road accident.

Siddiqur Rahman was a passionate advocate for raising awareness to curb road accidents as he lost two of his daughters in a tragic road crash four months ago.
He founded Shikha Memorial Foundation in memory of his eldest daughter Shikha, a victim of road crash.
The organisation printed posters and was planning to initiate vigorous programmes to increase awareness against reckless driving. In fact, Siddiqur was supposed to hold a meeting this week with the activists of the foundation in this regard.
Little did he know that only four months after undergoing such a trauma he would meet the same fate as his beloved daughters.
Siddiqur Rahman, chairman of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (Bscic), died early yesterday when a bus collided head-on with the SUV carrying him and Women Affairs secretary Razia Begum on Dhaka-Aricha Highway in Manikganj. They were on their way to Gopalganj for a programme, which the prime minister was scheduled to attend.
Earlier on March 26, his two daughters Sayma Siddika Shikha, 26, a student of Jahangirnagar University (JU), and Sadia Siddika Tuni, 9, were killed when a wildly driven bus rammed into their car on Dhaka-Chittagong highway at Daulatpur in Comilla. His wife Parveen Siddika who was also in the car is still undergoing treatment.
Following Siddiqur's traumatic death, The Daily Star paid a visit to their Khilgaon residence and found the three remaining members of the family numb with pain. Parveen and her daughters Shaila Siddika Shanta and Samia Siddika were found holding each other on a bed in a futile effort to console one another.
Industries minister Dilip Barua visited the bereaved family around 2:40pm to convey his condolences. Seeing him Shanta snapped, “What can you do against the killer drivers who took away half of my family?"
Shanta, who stays in a hostel of Ibn Sina Medical College Hospital, said in shock and tears, “My father asked me to come home on Friday, but I promised him that I would be there on August 3, when my exam ends.”
Relatives said the last time Shanta saw her father was when she came home on July 27 for Shab-e-Barat.
Nishat Salsabil, coordinator of Shikha Memorial Foundation, said with Siddiqur's funding and guidance they formed a human chain in front of National Press Club and staged a demonstration on JU campus following the death of Shikha and Tuni.
Nishat, a student of JU, told The Daily Star that Siddiqur also declared an award of Tk 10,000 for outstanding results in JU English department every year. He chose the English Department as Shikha belonged to that department.