Three people, including a woman and a child, were killed when a pickup van collided head-on with a CNG-powered auto-rickshaw in Dhamrai, Dhaka, on Thursday afternoon. Three others were injured in the crash.
The deceased have been identified as Akhi Begum, 30, Mohammad Zakaria, 12, and Juel, the auto-rickshaw driver. According to relatives and police, the group had been travelling to a pir’s shrine when the accident occurred.
The crash took place at around 3.30pm near Tiger Bricks at Nandeshwari Bottola in Amta Union, on the Kalampur-Saturia regional road. The road connects areas of Dhamrai with Saturia in neighbouring Manikganj and is used by local residents for regular travel.
Dhamrai police station officer-in-charge Nazmul Huda Khan said the auto-rickshaw and a pickup van collided head-on on the paved road near the Tiger Bridge. Four people, including the auto-rickshaw driver, sustained serious injuries in the impact.
Local people initially helped rescue the injured and took them to the 50-bed Saturia Upazila Health Complex in Manikganj. Three of the injured later died while receiving treatment at the facility.
The circumstances of the journey were explained by police and the family of Akhi Begum. Police said Akhi had been unable to have a child and was travelling with her husband, father and nephew to visit a pir’s shrine.
Akhi’s injured father, Abul Hossain, said five members of the same family were travelling in the auto-rickshaw, including himself and his son-in-law Selim Ahmed. They were on their way to attend an event and had also planned to visit the shrine because of Akhi’s difficulty conceiving.
Hossain and Selim survived the collision, but Akhi, Zakaria and the auto-rickshaw driver died after being taken to hospital.
Mohammad Ilias, in-charge of the Kawalipara police outpost in Dhamrai, confirmed the incident. He said the bodies remained at the hospital and that police were working to identify the pickup van involved in the collision.
The duty doctor at Saturia Upazila Health Complex, Mohammad Rokonuzzaman, said one critically injured person was referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for further treatment. The other two injured people received primary treatment at the health complex.
Police have not yet provided further details about the circumstances that led to the head-on collision. Efforts are continuing to identify the pickup van and establish what happened immediately before the crash.
