Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal today said road accident is the number one cause of deaths in Bangladesh rather than cancer or kidney diseases.

The minister said this while talking to reporters after inaugurating a new station of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Burichang upazila of Comilla.

“Approximately 6,000 minor to major accidents take place in Bangladesh every year, leaving 3,000-5,000 people dead. Different measures including widening of roads will be taken from the Roads and Highways Department in a bid to reduce the number of such accidents,” he said.

The home minister also said majority of the vehicles plying in Dhaka city are unfit and most of the drivers of these unfit vehicles do not have licenses.

Moreover, pedestrians, passengers and drivers do not abide by traffic laws, he added.

Replying to a query on the punishment of the attackers of journalists, the minister said law enforcers have been instructed to bring the perpetrators to book after scrutinising video footages of the attacks.

Former law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, also the lawmaker of Burichang, was present on the occasion among others.