Tushar Hayat . Chittagong
Death toll in Thursday’s road accident in Bandarban on Friday rose to at least eight, including six Chittagong College students. Thirty-four were critically injured and one remained missing till Friday evening.
One of the five buses, carrying Chittagong College students from a picnic in Bandarban to Chittagong, fell 300 feet down as it was going through the road up a hill at Kasaipur. At least six were reported killed late Thursday.
Sources in the college said 21 of the injured were being treated in Chittagong Medical College Hospital, 12 in Bandarban Hospital and one in a private clinic in the city.
Six of the deceased were — Shanta Chakrawarty, a resident of Khulsi in Chittagong, Ayesha Hashmat Ovi, of Boalkhali, Farzana Ali and Papri Mallik, of Raujan, Kapil Barua Sunny, of Chandanaish and Mahmudul Hasan of Sonagaji in Feni. They all were students of economics.
Two other victims, Mohammed Siddique Hossain Chowdhury and Dilara Chowdhury, were the parents of another student, Reshma Sultana, who was also injured in the accident.
Kapil and Dilara died on their way to Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Others died on the spot, college sources said, adding another student, Piashi Mutsuddi, had been missing since the accident.
Twenty-four of the injured, so far identified, are Nurul Islam Parvez, Saiful Islam, Mizan, Afsana Akter Pinki, Sujan, Shahid, Rubel, Ershad, Abdul Alim, Trisha, Delwara, Sajib, Mojahid, Tawhid, Mezbahuddin, Siraj, Kamal, Sami, Jahir, Fazlul Karim, Rahat, Sawmen, Tuhin and Amjad Hossain.
Ershad Hossain, a third-year student, now being treated in Chittagong Medical College Hospital, said the bus started rolling backwards as its engine stopped functioning and its brake failed.
The college principal, Abu Jafar Chowdhury, said the accident had resulted from the inexperience of the driver and he was not used to driving on hill roads. He said the Borak Paribahan runs buses on the Cox’s Bazar routes.
The Bandarban deputy commissioner, Mawdhud AK Quayyum Chowdhury, told New Age they had completed the rescue operation Friday afternoon. He said no more bodies could be found either inside the bus or in adjoining areas.
‘We have been informed by the college that a girl named Piashi had been missing,’ he said.
But he said the injured being treated in Bandarban said they had seen Piashi after the accident and she had sustained minor injuries.
He said Piashi might have been receiving treatment somewhere on her own. He said they had been confirmed by different sources that Piashi had survived.
Papri’s father Ratan Kumar Mallik said he rushed to Bandarban after waiting at Chittagong Medical College Hospital till midnight. He even went down the hill to find his daughter.
‘I failed to find her on the spot and went to the Bandarban Hospital morgue,’ he said, but she was not named on the morgue list. He told newsmen in his house at Ishaqerpool at Bakalia in the city that he had entered the morgue and found her daughter dead.
About 250 economics students of the college went picnicking in Bandarban in five buses on Thursday. The accident took place when they were returning to Chittagong.
The college authorities have formed a three-member committee to investigate the accident and announced a three-day condolence programme beginning Saturday. The authorities suspended all exams scheduled for the period.
Then industries minister, Dilip Barua, state minister for foreign affairs Hasan Mahmud Chowdhury and the Chittagong mayor, ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, visited the injured. The mayor wanted to bear the cost of medicine for the treatment of the students.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
