MANIKGANJ: Women and Children’s Affairs Secretary Razia Begum and BSCIC Chairman Siddiqur Rahman were killed in a fatal road accident on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway on Saturday morning, three months after the latter’s two daughters died in a road crash.
Police said a Pajero jeep carrying the Secretary and the BSCIC boss collided head-on with a speeding bus of Diganta Paribahan at Utholi-Paturia intersection in Shibalaya upazila at about 7:45am, leaving Siddiqur dead on the spot and Razia injured critically.
Razia Begum, 50, died at Manikganj Sadar Hospital.
Jeep-driver Fazlul Hauq and secretary’s bodyguard Fazlur Rahman were also injured in the accident. They were sent to Dhaka Medical Hospital in critical condition.
The government high officials were going to Gopalganj from the capital, Dhaka, to join a scheduled programme on the occasion of Prime Minister’s visit when the tragedy struck them down.
Hailed from Feni district, Razia also had worked as Additional Secretary of Education Ministry and Joint Secretary of Finance Ministry.
Siddiqur Rahman, the chief of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), hailed from Comilla, lost his two daughters in another road accident on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway on March 26 this year that his wife narrowly escaped with serious injuries. He was not in the private car when that accident occurred.
Bodies of the two officials were later taken to the capital.
BDST: 1215 HRS, 31 JULY 2010
