Swapan Kumar Singh :
At least nine people were killed and around 30 others injured in a head-on collision between two passenger buses on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway in Osmaninagar upazila of Sylhet on Friday morning. The deceased include a rising Baul singer and a three-year-old child, while the condition of several injured passengers remains critical.
The accident occurred around 7:30am in the Kashikapon area near Dayamir Bazar when a Dhaka-bound Unique Paribahan bus collided head-on with a Sylhet-bound Bengal Sleeper Coach, according to police. The impact forced the Unique Paribahan bus off the highway into a roadside ditch, leaving several passengers dead at the scene and many others seriously injured.
Police, firefighters and local residents launched a rescue operation immediately after the crash and rushed the injured to Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital and other nearby healthcare facilities. The death toll later rose to nine as several victims succumbed to their injuries while undergoing treatment.
Brig Gen Dr Omar Rashed Munir, director of Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, said the hospital received 16 injured passengers. “Two of them were declared dead upon arrival. Of the remaining 14 patients, two are in critical condition and are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU),” he said.
The identities of six of the deceased have been confirmed. They are Saiful Islam, 50, of Kuliarchar in Kishoreganj; Abul Hossain, 46, of Nabinagar in Brahmanbaria; Arman Hossain Rahim, 19, of Laksam in Cumilla; Saptam Roy Pritom, 22, of Sobhanighat in Sylhet city; three-year-old Khojaifa Islam, daughter of Jahangir Sheikh of Bikrampur, Dhaka; and Peheli Bhairabi, 19, an emerging Baul singer from Bhairab in Kishoreganj.
According to family members and local sources, Peheli Bhairabi was returning home after performing at a cultural programme in Rampasha of Bishwanath upazila on Thursday night when the accident occurred. Her untimely death has cast a shadow of grief over the local cultural community.
The identities of the remaining three victims have yet to be confirmed. The Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) has collected their fingerprints to assist in the identification process.
Sylhet Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate Abdullah Al Mamun and Sylhet Highway Police Superintendent Md Rezaul Karim visited the accident site and supervised the rescue operation.
Police said the two buses involved in the crash have been seized, and traffic on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway resumed a few hours after the accident.
The upazila administration has announced an initial financial assistance of Tk 20,000 for each bereaved family.
Police said an investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of the accident, while efforts to identify the three unidentified victims are continuing.
