14 dead in bus-pickup van collision in Faridpur

DE Online Desk:
At least 14 people including five of a family were killed and two others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a pick-up van on Khulna-Dhaka highway at Dignagar Tentultala point of Kanaipur area under Sadar upazila in Faridpur district Tuesday morning.
The deceased include Rafiq Mollah, 35, his wife Sumi Begum, 23, his sons Ruhan Mollah, 6, and Habib Mollah, 3, and Rafiq’s elderly mother. Rafiq used to work as a liftman at a government office in Dhaka and was was returning to Dhaka with his family after Eid holidays.
Identities of the other deceased ones are yet to be known.
The accident occurred at about 7:45am, Karimpur highway police station officer-in-charge Md Salauddin Chowdhury said.
He said that the 11 of the victims died on the spot and four other injured ones were rescued and sent to hospital.
Md Hasanuzzaman, officer-in-charge of Faridpur Sadar Police Station, said that two more people died at the hospital while undergoing treatment.
He said that the deceased people were passengers of the pick-up van.
According to locals and police officials, a pick-up van coming from Alfadanga of Faridpur collided head-on with a Magura-bound bus of Unique Paribahan from Dhaka.
Emergency response teams promptly moved to the spot, taking the injured to nearby medical facilities for urgent treatment.
The local hospital has been inundated with casualties, as medical personnel work tirelessly to stabilise the injured and provide necessary care.
Law enforcement agencies, including the Faridpur Kotwali Police Station, swiftly initiated recovery operations, retrieving the bodies of the deceased from the wreckage.
Faridpur deputy commissioner Kamrul Ahsan Talukder said that they had rushed to the spot after receiving the news.
‘A five-member team, headed by the additional district magistrate, has been formed to investigate into the incident,’ he said.