Mother, son killed as lorry hits rickshaw

Four-year-old Hamim held on to the collar of his father Mainul's shirt tight as the father was giving him to his mother sitting on a rickshaw. His mother Jhumur and sister Ritu were taking him along for a visit to a relative's in Matuail from their home in Rayerbagh. 

Hamim was not happy. It was clear he did not want to let go of his father.

Mainul told his son that he would come soon and then waved as the rickshaw pulled away.

Obviously, Mainul had no idea that that was the last time he would see his son and wife alive.

Less than half-an-hour later, the rickshaw was hit by a lorry near Matuail Hospital and dragged on the street for some distance. Shakila Ishrat Jhumur and Hamim died on the spot. Ritu was receiving treatment in Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

"He had a tight grip on my shirt collar and was unwilling to let me go," said Mainul seeing the bodies of his wife and son at a mortuary of the DMCH.

Mainul could hardly believe what had happened to his family. "They killed my wife and son," he said in tears.

Relatives thronged the hospital hearing the news. Their wails and crying suppressed the almost always consistent hue and cry of the hospital.

Police seized the lorry and arrested driver Imran from the spot, said Abdul Awal, a sub-inspector of Jatrabari Police Station.

Meanwhile, an oil tanker hit a motorbike on Amulia Road in Demra yesterday killing Farida Yeasmin, 33, and injuring her husband Abul Hashem.

Hashem was in the DMCH.

Police seized the lorry but the driver fled.

An unidentified youth was also killed after being hit by a vehicle when he was crossing a road at Mohakhali Bus Terminal area early yesterday. 

The incidents happened just a day after 25 people were killed and 23 were injured as a bus crashed into a tree on Dhaka-Barisal highway in Bhanga of Faridpur.