Five killed under train

Three children and two women were crushed under the wheels of a speeding train in Kalihati of Tangail Thursday night.
The deceased were identified as Asma Akhter, 40, and her daughter Shanta, 12; Mamoni, 12; and Alechha Begum, 28, and her son Rabbi, 10, of Sherpur upazila in Bogra.
Victims' relative Lebu Miah of Nordohi village in Kalihati said eleven people were going to attend a family programme at the house of his nephew Abdul Latif of the same village. They got down from a bus at Salla in Kalihati from Bogra around 9:30pm Thursday.
Finding no transportation due to stormy weather, they started walking on the rail tracks to reach the destination, some two kilometres off the bus stop , he said.
“At one stage, a Dhaka-bound train from Ishwardi hit six of them from behind near Hatia village leaving five of them dead on the spot and injuring another,” Lebu Miah said.
When contacted, Mohammad Yunus Ali, officer-in-charge of Bangabandhu Bridge (East) Police Station, told this correspondent that he knew nothing about the accident.
“Being informed by local journalists, I sent a police team to Hatia village and the relatives of the victims confirmed police about the accident,” he added.
However, Sub-Inspector Mokter Hossain of GRP Police Station in Kamalapur in Dhaka said they did not receive information of any such accident.
Shamim-al-Mamun Pramanik, chairman of Salla Union Parishad (UP), confirmed the accident. He also said relatives of the victims took away the bodies the same night to avoid legal complexities.
This correspondent while visiting the house of Latif at Nordohi village Friday noon found the family members off to Sherpur to join the funeral of the deceased.
Contacted, Aminul Islam, officer-in-charge of Sherpur Police Station, confirmed The Daily Star about the deaths of five in a train accident.