A good Samaritan indeed
During the daybreak, at least 2,000 EPZ workers, mostly female, from surrounding villages cross the precarious level crossing on light vehicles braving the risk.
A poor man has set an example of magnanimity voluntarily guarding an unmanned rail crossing defying the bone-chilling cold and dense fog at the daybreak to caution Uttara EPZ workers about approaching trains, who are in a mad rush to reach factories in time.
Notably, on January 26, a terrific accident took away the lives of four female EPZ workers and critically injured four others as Khulna-bound Rupsha Express crushed a battery-run three-wheeler carrying them on the way to their workplace at the early hours on the unguarded rail crossing at Sonarai Dhonipara village in Nilphamari Sadar upazila.
After the accident, agitated people demanded that a gate be set up and a gateman be appointed but no high officials of railway either visited the spot or gave any assurance in this regard.
Still at the daybreak, at least two thousand EPZ workers, mostly female, from surrounding villages cross the precarious level crossing on light vehicles braving the risk, locals said.
Alamgir Hossain, 40, a rickshaw-van puller who lives near the rail crossing, got worried and felt the urge to secure the level crossing.
Talking with local elderly people, Alamgir arranged bamboo poles and set them on each side of the rail crossing.
Whenever a train comes he sets the long bamboo pieces crosswise and cautions the pedestrians and vehicles to keep away from the rail tracks.
"I saw the blood-splattered bodies of the accident victims and when I found that the same risk still prevails, I became unsettled," said he.
"Every day, I come to the rail crossing at the daybreak and notice the headlight of an approaching train amid dense fog and whenever I see one I shout out to caution drivers and walkers. I have been doing this for all trains," he added.
Alamgir's son Aminur Rahman, 19, an HSC examinee, said "My father has given up pulling his rickshaw-van to guard the rail crossing, yet we respect his noble intention. To maintain the family, I and my younger brother are working at a brick kiln as our institution is closed."
Easy bike driver Shibu Roy said, "We sometimes offer him Tk 10 to Tk 20 but he never accepts."
Sadar upazila Chairman Shahid Mahmud said, "We have requested the railway authority to build a rail gate and appoint a gateman at this risky crossing."
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