It’s murder

With a blank expression, not long after he landed in Chattogram from Qatar, Lokman Hossain sat on a chair at his home and stared into the ambulance where the dead body of his 18-year-old daughter was kept in a coffin.

The 60-year-old expatriate returned to Chattogram around 11:00am yesterday to bid his daughter Nisha Moni a final goodbye after learning that she, along with 16-year-old Mishu Akter, had died when a speeding jeep ran them over in the district's Fatikchhari upazila on Wednesday.

Police said yesterday that the jeep, known locally as chander gari, did not have valid documents.

"Oh, my daughter please come back. How can we live without you? How do I live with this pain?" Lokman sobbed as Nisha's mother cried helplessly following her the namaz-e-janaza around 3:30pm.

Nisha and Mishu were both SSC candidates from Haidchakia High School and the accident on the Chattogram-Khagrachhari highway's Felagazi area left two families bereft, a day after five brothers were killed in a road crash in Chakaria.

"We demand justice … it is not an accident; it is a murder," said Md Ayub Ali, Mishu's uncle.

Md Robiul Islam, officer-in-charge of Fatickchari Police Station, said Ayub Ali filed a case against jeep driver Mohammad Alauddin and other unnamed accused with the station, but police were yet to make an arrest.

OC Robiul told this newspaper that the jeep was plying the road without valid documents.

According to the case statement, Highway Police Traffic Inspector (TI) Nikhil Chakma, and Traffic Sergeant Alamin had signalled the paddy-laden jeep to stop, and when the driver tried to flee, the vehicle ran over the two students, killing them on the spot.

The OC said no case was lodged so far over an angry mob setting fire to the motorcycle of TI Nikhil Chakma after the incident. Locals accused police of extorting money from the local jeeps, but police denied it.

Sergeant Al Amin was suspended and Highway Police Traffic Inspector (TI) Nikhil Chakma was attached to the police lines, said SM Rashidul Hoque, superintendent of police of Chattogram district, adding that departmental procedure was underway against them.

Md Abu Tayeb, president of Fatickchari-Najirhat Jeep drivers Association, told journalist that the association has around 25 jeeps which ply the road managing local police and they pay Tk 4,300 per jeep every year to local police in bribe.