Marking fourth anniversary of the fatal Mirsarai road crash, which killed 44 schoolboys, locals of Mirsarai upazila in Chittagong carried out different programmes yesterday.
Residents of six villages under Moghdia and Mayani unions of Mirsarai recalled their most shocking experience that took place on July 11, 2011.
A truck carrying 60 students skidded off the road and fell into a roadside ditch at Abu Torab in the upazila killing 34 students of Abu Torab Bahumukhi High School and a local guardian. The students were returning home after enjoying a school football match held in Mirsarai stadium.
District administration officials, political parties, local residents and students of Abu Torab Bahumukhi High School brought out a mourning procession led by Housing and Public Works Minister Engineer Mosharraf Hossain. They placed floral wreaths at the monument “Abeg” which was unveiled on the first anniversary of the tragedy and at present lies under construction on the school premises.
“For completion of the project, Local Government and Rural Development ministry has sent a project proposal of Tk35 lakh to the Chittagong district administration. The construction will be completed before next anniversary,” said the minister. He unveiled a book written over the tragedy by local writer Mohammad Hasan.
The minister said he would place a proposal at the Parliament for modification of the Motor Vehicles Law asking for highest punishment for drivers in cases where they are proven guilty.
Authorities of Abu Torab High School chalked out different religious ceremonies and mourning sessions marking the day. “I cannot hold my tears whenever I remember the face of any of my students even after two years,” said Headmaster of the school Jafar Sadek.
Jafrul islam, a local, said every now and then they would be awaken in the middle of the night by the wailing parents of the deceased.
“We might have not lost any of ours in the accident, but a pall of gloom descends on us when we hear them wailing. Our children still cannot accept that their friends were no more,” he said.
