Road Accidents: Two more students killed

Two college students were killed in separate road accidents in Gazipur and Narsingdi yesterday amid the countrywide student agitation for road safety.

With them, at least six students have been killed in road accidents over the last seven days.

A covered van ran over Farhana Alam Mim, a second-year student of Safiuddin Sarker Academy and College, around 12:30pm while she was crossing the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway near Barobari of Gazipur's Joydebpur, leaving her critically injured, police said.

She was rushed to Tongi Government Hospital where doctors pronounced her dead, reports our Gazipur correspondent.

Salehuddin Ahmed, deputy superintendent of Gazipur Traffic Division, said some locals, including students, caught the driver, beat him up and handed him over to police.

They also set the van on fire.

When a fire service vehicle went there to douse the flames, the angry locals vandalised it as well, said witnesses.

Later, the locals blocked the highway near the spot for nearly two hours, said Salehuddin, adding that it created long tailbacks on both sides of the road.

In Narsingdi, Mohammad Abdullah, 17, was killed after he was hit by a human haulier from behind in Nilkuthi area of Raipura upazila, reports our correspondent in the district.

Abdullah, son of Shahjahan Mia of Mahmudabad Jhartala village in the upazila, was a first-year student at Bhairab Haji Asmot College.

Delwar Hossain, officer-in-charge of Raipura Police Station, said the victim was waiting at Nilkuthi bus stand around 10:00am. All of a sudden, the Bhairab-bound human haulier lost control, hit Abdullah from behind and turned turtle, leaving him dead on the spot.

The engine of the vehicle caught fire instantly.

Police detained the injured driver and seized the human haulier, he said.

After the incident, angry locals blocked the highway for nearly two hours, leading to traffic jam.

Meanwhile, students of Borochowna High School at Sakhipur in Tangail demonstrated blocking the Dhaka-Sagardighi road in Borochowna Bazar area yesterday.

They were protesting the death of Sadia Afrin, a class-X student of a local school. Sadia was killed on Friday when a pickup, with a 15-year-old assistant of its driver at the wheel, hit her from behind.

The students also formed a human chain and held a rally to press home their demand for punishment to the driver.

The accidents happened at a time when students have been staging nationwide protests demanding road safety since reckless driving claimed the lives of two college students in the capital on July 29.