Students block Farmgate demanding safer roads

Students of Government Science College took to the streets to protest the death of a schoolboy in a road accident in the capital’s Tejgaon.

Around 11:45 am on Monday, protesters descended on the Farmgate area, some holding placards that read “Justice for all” and “We want safe roads.”

After about 40 minutes, the students marched to Bijoy Sarani and continued their protest, halting traffic on all sides of the intersection.

They demonstrated for about 20 minutes at Bijoy Sarani before marching back to Farmgate.

Ali Hossain, 16, a tenth grader of Government Science College, was killed as a microbus hit him in the city’s Tejgaon area on Sunday morning.

The speeding vehicle hit Hossain in front of the Bangladesh Government (BG) Press in Tejgaon industrial area around 7:30 am when he was going for his coaching classes, leaving him seriously injured, said Hossain’s father Azmir Matbor. Locals rushed him to Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) where doctors declared him dead, said DMCH police outpost in-charge inspector Md Bacchu Mia.

Police on Monday arrested a microbus driver allegedly responsible for the death of Ali Hossain as the microbus hit him in the city’s Tejgaon industrial area.

Driver Ziaul Haque, 50, was arrested from Ashulia and the microbus was seized, deputy commissioner of DMP Tejgaon division HM Azimul Haque said.