A five-year-old girl lost her life in a tragic household accident after becoming entangled in a cloth towel while playing at her residence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The incident occurred at approximately 5:00 pm on Monday (3 August) in the remote Pagli Uparpara village, situated within the Wagga Union of Kaptai Upazila, Rangamati district. The deceased child has been identified as Ardoshi Tanchangya, daughter of Tapan Bikash Tanchangya, a local agrarian worker.
According to preliminary details provided by Sheikh Mahmudul Hasan Rubel, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kaptai Police Station, the young girl was playing unsupervised inside her family home. She had been using a makeshift swing suspended indoors, constructed using a traditional cotton gamcha towel. At the time of the mishap, her parents were away working in the surrounding hills, engaged in seasonal Jhum (slash-and-burn) farming, a primary livelihood across the indigenous communities of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Local reports indicate that while swinging on the fabric, the cloth wrapped tightly around the child’s neck, restricting her airway and causing rapid asphyxiation. The child collapsed unconscious before she could free herself. Moments later, her elder sister discovered her unresponsive on the floor and immediately raised an alarm, summoning neighbours from the nearby settlement for assistance.
Community members promptly arranged transport to convey the unconscious child to the nearest medical facility, the Kaptai Upazila Health Complex, located several kilometres away. However, despite their efforts to seek urgent medical attention, attending clinicians declared the child dead upon arrival.
Dr Ruihla Aung Marma, the Kaptai Upazila Health and Family Planning Officer, confirmed that the child was brought to the emergency department at approximately 6:00 pm. Clinical examination indicated that she had succumbed to severe respiratory obstruction prior to reaching the hospital grounds.
Following notification from hospital administration, a team from Kaptai Police Station visited both the health facility and the victim’s residence to inspect the scene and document the circumstances surrounding the incident. Law enforcement officials confirmed that an unnatural death case is being processed in accordance with standard statutory procedures, while local leaders expressed deep sorrow over the tragic loss.
