An elderly man died a sudden death yesterday on the streets in Tejgaon under unusual circumstances. Police are saying he may have died of poisoning.
Family of the victim, Nurul Islam, 70, said he was a freedom fighter from Gopalganj and they had no idea why he was in the city.
Tejgaon police Sub-Inspector Abdullah Al-Mamun said around 11:30am yesterday Nurul, who was walking in the direction of Lucas Intersection, collapsed on the street in front of gate 4 of the Prime Minister’s Office.
A patrol team from the Tejgaon police station that was nearby at the moment rushed the man to Shaheed Suhrawardy Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
The police inquest report said Nurul may have died of poisoning. For the autopsy, the dead body was sent to the Dhaka medical College morgue. Police said they were treating the incident as a suicide and looking into what may have driven Nurul to the act.
Nurul’s son Lalin Khan said his father was a freedom fighter and lived in the Bongram area in Gopalganj Sadar. He did not know when his father had come to Dhaka and why.
“He had been upset for a while because some people had threatened to block his freedom fighter allowance,” Lalin said.
But he did not believe that this could have caused the man to take his own life, he said.