Road crashes kill nine, injure eight

Nine people were killed and eight others injured in separate road accidents in four districts on Tuesday. In Satkhira alone, six people died and seven others were wounded as a pickup van carrying them collided head-on with a truck at Bhairabnagar in Patkelghata area of the district around 8pm, reports our correspondent in the district. The deceased are Aklima Khatun, wife of Md Moniruzzaman of Kaliganj upazila, their son Ashikuzzaman, 12,  three-year old daughter Mim, Nur Banu, Saidul Islam and Sabbir Hossain. All the deceased and injured people were residents of the upazila’s Kalikapur village. “A truck collided head-on with a pickup van carrying them at Bhairabnagar while they were returning home after attending a funeral of one of their relatives, leaving the six dead on the spot,” said Satkhira sadar police station Officer-in-Charge Maruf Ahmed, quoting locals. The injured people were sent to Satkhira Sadar Hospital in critical conditions. In Pabna, a six-year old schoolgirl, Upama, was killed and her father injured as a speedy truck abruptly hit their bicycle on a bridge in Ishwardi upazila when she was returning home from school riding on the bicycle with her father, adds our Pabna correspondent. Upama’s father is undergoing treatment at Ishwardi Upazila Health Complex. In Naogaon, a microbus plunged into a roadside ditch while overtaking a truck in Mirpur upazila on the Naogaon-Rajshahi highway, killing a woman who was grazing her cattle near the ditch at the time, reports our correspondent in the district Saira Begum, 55, is the wife of Riaz Uddin of the upazila. Her body was sent to the Naogaon Sadar Hospital morgue for autopsy. In Tangail, a student was run over by a bus in Baimhati court area of Mirzapur upazila when he was crossing a road there, according to our Tangail correspondent. Shakil Miah, 17, appeared in this year’s Secondary School Certificate examinations. Police recovered the body from the spot and sent it the deceased’s family, said Mahmudul Hasan, sub-Inspector of Mirzapur police station.