Abrar’s father files case against transport owner, bus driver

A case has been lodged with the Gulshan police over the death of university student Abrar Ahmed Chowdhury in a road accident at the capital’s Pragoti Sarani on Tuesday.

A bus operated by Suprobhat Paribahan ran over and killed Abrar, 20, a first-year student of international relations department at the Bangladesh University of Professionals, or BUP, on a zebra crossing near Jamuna Future Park.

Abrar’s father, Arif Ahmed Chowdhury, filed the lawsuit against the owner of Suprobhat Paribahan, the bus driver Sirajul Islam, the driver’s assistant and the conductor on Tuesday, said Mustafa Ahmed, the deputy commissioner of the police’s Gulshan Division.

After the accident on Tuesday, BUP students took to the streets and shouted demands for punishment to the bus driver. The driver was subsequently arrested and the vehicle seized by the police.

Students from different institutions in the area also joined the protests demanding safer roads. 

On Wednesday morning, protesters once again took to the streets near Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka with students in other parts of the capital following suit. Traffic in the city ground to a halt amid protests in Shahbagh, Dhanmondi, Science Laboratory crossing and Old Dhaka.

Abrar, the elder of the two brothers, lived with his family in Block D of Bashundhara Residential Area. His father, Arif Ahmed Chowdhury, is a former army officer.

Abrar enrolled into BUP in 2018 after completing the A Level. He was laid to rest in the capital's Banani Graveyard on Tuesday evening.