Published : 25 Mar 2026, 05:50 AM
Updated : 21 Aug 2026, 03:31 PM
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has arrested the primary suspect in the case filed over the devastating collision between a train and a bus at Cumilla’s Paduar Bazar, which left 12 people dead.
Helal Uddin, a gateman at the level crossing, was apprehended on Tuesday evening during a raid in Shankuchail of Burichang Upazila, according to Tahura Jannat, superintendent of police for the Railway’s Chattogram region.
A manhunt is under way for the second suspect Mehedi Hasan.
RAB officials said a press briefing would be held following a preliminary interrogation of the arrested suspect.
The accident occurred around 3am last Saturday at the Paduar Bazar level crossing on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway.
The Dhaka-bound Dhaka Mail train from Chattogram slammed into a Mamun Special bus travelling from Chuadanga to Lakshmipur.
The impact was so severe that the train dragged the mangled bus for nearly a kilometre before coming to a halt.
Twelve passengers were killed instantly or shortly after, while eight others suffered injuries.
Shefali Akhter filed the case against the two suspects at Laksam Railway Police Station on Monday.
The suspects were the gatemen at the level crossing.
Shefali, the plaintiff in the case, is the aunt of Sohel Rana, who was killed in the accident.
She hails from Cumilla’s Laksam. She and her nephew were on the bus involved in the crash.
Sohel's wife and daughter, who were also injured in the same accident, are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dhaka.
Citing the case, police said it had been filed under Section 304 (A) of the Penal Code, which deals with “death due to negligence”.
The case states that Sohel, an expatriate living in Malaysia, had returned to his home in Chuadanga for Eid-ul-Fitr.
From there, he lost his life in an accident at a railway crossing while visiting his aunt's house in Cumilla on Eid day.
Those killed in the crash have been identified as Laizu Akhtar, 26, from Jashore and her two daughters, Khadija, 6, and Mariam, 3; Juhad Biswas, 24, from Jhenaidah; Sayeed, 9, from Lakshmipur's Sadar Upazila; Tajul Islam, 67, from Chandpur; Sirajul Islam, 70, from Jashore, and his wife Kohinoor Begum, 55; Babul Chowdhury, 55, from Noakhali; Fochiar Rahman, 26, from Magura; Sohel Rana, 25, from Chuadanga; and Nazrul Islam Raihan, 45, from Noakhali.
