Eid shopping ends in tragedy

A father and his daughter went out for Eid shopping, but their return home ended in tragedy on Dhaka’s streets.

Four people, including a female student and her father, were killed in two road crashes in the capital on Friday night.

In the first incident, Saju Ahmed Sumon, 45, a public works department official, and his only daughter, Sumaiya Ahmed Trisha, 19, died in the Science Laboratory area when a truck ran over their motorcycle around 10:30pm.

Trisha’s uncle Ripon Ahmed Shakil said Trisha went out with her father in the evening to buy dresses for Eid.

They first went to a shop at Asad Gate. After searching for a long time, she could not find a dress she liked. She later called her mother and said she had not found anything suitable and that they were heading back home in Shahjahanpur.

Her mother then asked her to buy a pair of shoes from Chourangi on Elephant Road on their way home.

Following that request, the father and daughter were heading towards Elephant Road when the accident occurred.

Shakil said Trisha secured GPA-5 in this year’s HSC examinations. As she had studied science, her father wanted her to pursue medicine, and preparations were underway to admit her to a private medical college.

Sub-Inspector Mahmudul Hasan of New Market Police Station said victim Sumon worked at the public works department office in Segunbagicha and the family lived in South Shahjahanpur.

He said Sumon and his daughter were returning home on a motorcycle when a truck hit and ran over the vehicle in front of the mosque near Science Laboratory.

Sumon died on the spot.

Trisha was rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition, where doctors declared her dead around 11:30pm.

Police later seized the truck and detained its driver, the SI said.

In another incident, two people were killed and two others injured when a CNG-run auto-rickshaw crashed into a central reservation in the Tejgaon Industrial area and overturned while taking a U-turn around 10:30pm, said police.

The deceased were passenger Harunur Rahman Sani, 32, and driver Alim, 50.

The injured, Brishti Akter, 26, Sani’s wife, and her sister Happy, 21, were undergoing treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Sani’s relative Nahid Ibne Abdullah said Sani worked at a private company in Banani. Sani went for shopping in the Shantinagar area with his wife and sister-in-law. The crash took place when they were returning home in Mohakhali.

Nahid said Sani, from Katiadi upazila of Kishoreganj, got married less than a year ago.