Students block Airport Road demanding safe roads

Students of Northern University Bangladesh continued their demonstration blocking the busy Airport Road at Kawla footbridge for the second day on road on Monday.

Several hundred students resumed the demonstration blocking the road to raise voices against the death of their fellow Nadia Sultana death in a road accident and demanding justice for her and safe roads for all.

They blocked the road around 12:30pm, said Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Mohammad Kamruzzaman. “We are talking to the students and trying to clear the road. Later, the students left the road around 1:30pm,” he added.

Before blocking the road, Nadia’s classmates gathered in front of Northern University and at one point, they came to Kawla, locals said.

The protesters, however, allowed ambulances and long-route buses and vehicles carrying air passengers to pass by, they said.

They also checked the documents of vehicles and of the drivers. They found a bus driver without a driving license and handed him over to the police.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested the driver and his assistant of the bus that killed Nadia Sultana near Jamuna Future Park on Sunday.

Bhatara police arrested Md Liton, 38, driver of the ‘Victor Paribahan’ bus and son of Kalu Mia of Iliasha of Bhola, and his assistant Abul Khair, 22, son of Hashem Gharami of the same district in the Shah Ali area of Mirpur on Monday.

Police also seized the bus, said Abdul Ahad, deputy commissioner (Gulshan) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Nadia Sultana, 22, a 4th-year student of the pharmacy department at Northern University, died when the bus hit the motorcycle carrying her.

A case was filed at Vatara police station under Road Transport Act -2018 in this connection on Sunday.

The family said that Nadia hails from Rangabali in Patuakhali. She was the eldest of three sisters. Her father Jahangir Hossain works as an assistant general manager in a garment factory.