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Six killed in road accidents

Tens of thousands of holidaymakers have left Dhaka city before Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the largest religious festivals of Muslims.

Amid the rush of homegoers, at least six people were killed in three road accidents in Barguna, Lakshmipur and Gaibandha districts on Saturday.

Eid-ul-Fitr is likely to be celebrated nationwide on March 31 or April 1. The rush of the holidaymakers continued since March 26.

The nine-day Eid vacation began on Friday as the five-day public holiday was merged with two weekends and a one-day holiday on an executive order.

On Saturday, Dhaka city dwellers witnessed thin traffic movement in most of the areas. The areas having kitchen markets and shopping malls witnessed huge crowds.

In the past 24 hours till midnight past Friday, 39,637 vehicles, including 9,852 motorcycles, crossed the Padma Bridge while 48,335 vehicles crossed Jamuna Bridge, reports received from ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondents in Munshiganj and Tangail said.

A total of 26,057 vehicles crossed Mawa point and 13,580 crossed through Jajira point of the Padma Bridge, ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondent in Munshiganj reported, quoting Padma Bridge site office executive engineer Abu Sayeed.

A total of 30,398 vehicles headed for North Bengal crossed the Jamuna Bridge, and 17,937 Dhaka-bound vehicles crossed the bridge during the period, ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· correspondent in Tangail reported, quoting Jamuna Bridge site office executive engineer Ahsanul Kabir Pavel.  

‘The vehicles were moving slowly from Saturday afternoon,’ said Ahsanul.

The pressure of vehicles on the Dhaka–Mawa–Bhanga Expressway was normal on Saturday but the pressure of vehicles increased in the 13 and a half kilometers from Elenga to Jamuna Bridge since the early hours of the day.

Huge rush of passengers was witnessed at Sadarghat and Dhaka Railway Station in Kamlapur on Saturday.

Traffic movement was almost smooth on the major highways of the country, including the Dhaka-Chattogram highway.

At Sadarghat, there was a jam-packed condition as a huge number of people rushed there since Saturday morning.

Md Moshiur Rahman, a passenger who went to Bhola from Dhaka by MV Farhan-9, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· that he witnessed a huge pressure of passengers from Jagannath University.

‘Sadarghat was jam-packed with passengers. It was really a tough experience like the previous years,’ Moshiur, a resident of Charfassion in Bhola district, said.

Dhaka River Port in- charge Mustafizur Rahman said that there was huge pressure of passengers as 80 launches departed Sadarghat for 24 districts and 84 launches arrived there between 6:00am and 6:00pm on Saturday.  

A huge crowd was also witnessed at the Dhaka Railway Station at Kamlapur.

A total of 43 inter-city trains, two special trains and 26 pairs of mail and commuter trains left Kamlapur for different destinations across the county, said Dhaka Railway Station station master Anwar Hossain.

‘We have witnessed the last pressure of passengers today,’ he added.

Home adviser retired lieutenant general Jahangir Alam Chowdhury visited the Gabtali Bus Terminal to oversee the people’s Eid Journey.

While talking to reporters following the visit, he said that he saw none was charging extra money in fare than the money mentioned on the government chart.

‘Some isolated incidents took place and we have taken actions against them,’ he said, adding that the members of law enforcement and security agencies would not go on Eid vacations and would perform their duties during the period.

United News of Bangladesh reported that three siblings – Naimuzzaman Shuvo, Shanto, and Nadim, sons of Nasir Khan from Baishkura village in Tikikata union of Mathbaria upazila in Pirojpur district – were killed in a collision between a bus and a motorcycle on the Patharghata-Mathbaria road in the Sonabangla area of Patharghata upazila in Barguna Saturday morning.

Patharghata police station officer-in-charge Yakub Hossain said that the accident occurred at about 7:30am when a Dhaka-bound bus of Rajib Paribahan from Patharghata collided with the motorcycle, leaving the three dead on the spot.

Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha reported that Juty Begum, 30, and her three-year-old son Sihab Hossain, of Shakchar area under Sadar upazila in Lakshmipur were killed and three others injured in a collision between a bus and an auto-rickshaw in the Terbaki area on the Lakshmipur-Maju Chowdhury Hat road in the district on Saturday.

Juty’s husband Sharif Hossain and two other men, Abu Taher and Raza Mia, were critically injured in the accident, the police said.

BSS, quoting the Rangpur region’s superintendent of highway police, Mohammad Tariqul Islam, also reported that an unidentified man was killed and three others injured in a road accident in the Palanpara area under Sadullapur upazila at about 9:00am on Saturday.