Pick-up hits bike: Infant dies falling from mother’s lap

Shanta Khatun held her 45-day-old son tightly in her arms on the back of her father's motorcycle as they were taking their ailing child to the upazila health complex in Kaliganj, Jhenidah, yesterday morning.

Before they could reach, a pick-up rammed the bike from behind near Kaliganj bus stand. Shanta lost her grip on the baby, Sizan Hossain, as the three fell off the motorcycle.

Just then, the speeding pick-up ran over the child and sped off, leaving Sizan dead on the spot.

Shanta fell unconscious as she suffered severe head wounds. Sizan's grandfather Abul Kalam sustained minor injuries, witnesses said.

Locals rushed Shanta, Kalam and the deadinfant to the health complex. Kalam received primary treatment, but his daughter was kept under observation as she had not regained consciousness till 7:00pm, when this report was filed.

Some locals chased and seized the pick-up and handed the driver over to police.

"How will I face my daughter? How will I tell her that we have lost our Sizan? We were taking him to the hospital for treatment, but the pick-up killed him," said Abul Kalam while crying inconsolably at the complex.

Sizan was the younger of two sons of Shanta and Shihab Hossain of Choto Simla village in the upazila. He had been suffering from cold and fever for the last five days.

Shihab has been working in Saudi Arabia for the past eight years.

The air in the village after Sizan's tragic death was heavy as friends and family mourned. Sizan, who should have been back home safe in his mother's arms, was buried at the family graveyard in the evening following a namaz-e-janaza, with his mother still unconscious.

Majharul Islam, a doctor at the health complex, said Shanta was under observation and they would transfer her to Jashore if her condition remained unchanged.

Kalam filed a case with Kaliganj Police Station in the afternoon, accusing the driver of the pick-up.

Police arrested the driver and seized the vehicle, said Abdur Rahim Mollah, officer-in-charge of the police station.