Gowainghat (Sylhet) Correspondent //

A child named Mehedi Hasan (12) died after being crushed by the wheels of a power tiller carrying Indian oranges (mangoes) illegally coming from the Hajipur border in Gowainghat, Sylhet.

In this incident, Gowainghat police have arrested the driver along with the power tiller.

It is known that thousands of Indian fruit-laden power tillers illegally come through the Hajipur-Pratappur border of the upazila every day, managed by the Gowainghat police. Children run after the power tillers every day while importing these smuggled products. Some children are injured in this.

Yesterday, around 4 pm on Wednesday, a power tiller loaded with Indian oranges coming at a high speed illegally passed through the tea garden of Jaflong Union No. 11 in Gowainghat Upazila and came in front of the grocery shop of a person named Shah Alam in Islampur (Dubag) village. The vehicle lost control and ran over Mehedi Hasan (12), son of the deceased Mohammad Ali of the same village. Later, the locals rescued him in an injured condition and took him to the Gowainghat Upazila Health Complex, where the doctor on duty there declared him dead. There is intense tension in the area over the incident.

Meanwhile, the fruit traders of Hajipur and Chhotakhel villages on the border are working desperately to curb the crime of black money. Awami League leader Abdullah, a lineman smuggling Indian goods, is lobbying the nearest police station through money and brokers so that no case is filed against the concerned Indian fruit traders.

During the Awami League government, he extorted lakhs of taka daily from illegal Indian goods in the name of the police station and police, but the police did not take any legal action against him despite dozens of news reports. Instead, the police gather around him in the evening. Currently, he is running his old bustling business by managing the OC of Gowainghat Police Station.

Sources said that he is running around the OC’s table with large sums of money from the owners of Indian goods to cover up this sensational incident. There are also allegations that various types of Indian goods are freely entering through the Gowainghat Upazila border. In return, the OC’s lineman Abdullah hands him a lot of money every day.

When contacted about this, Awami League leader and police lineman Abdullah avoided the matter by saying that his father-in-law is in Comilla.

When contacted about this, the officer-in-charge of Gowainghat Police Station, Sarkar Md. Tofail, confirmed the truth of the child’s death and said that upon receiving the information, the police arrested the driver of the power tiller from the spot and sent the body of the deceased child to the morgue of the Siomak Hospital. Legal action is being taken in this case. At this time, he avoided the issue of collecting donations.

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