Heavy rains leave parts
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also a senior journalist residing in the area, said yesterday.
He said his family was in nearly knee-deep water. “We managed to sleep on our beds, but we had to cook at others’ houses.”
Md Sujat, another Terokhadia resident, said knee-deep water was still on the road in front of his house.
Locals broke the boundary wall of an under-construction building to help water recede, he added.
“I couldn’t sleep last night for fear of snakes and had only dry food,” said Mukter Hossain, a motor mechanic.
He said his family of three had to depend on relatives for food.
As water was not receding, he and some others rented a machine to pump out water to a nearby drain.
Selim Reza Ronju, deputy chief conservancy officer of Rajshahi City Corporation, said they started pumping out water from some areas, including C&B Mor and Shipaipara.
“We will do the same in the other affected areas in phases,” he added.
LIVES LOST IN GAZIPUR
An eight-year-old boy died on Thursday night, and a couple were killed early yesterday after mud walls, weakened by rain, collapsed on them in separate incidents in Gazipur.
The deceased are Faridul Islam, 8, of Konabari under Sadar upazila, and Imarat Hossain, 65, and his wife Achia Begum, 56, of Ratanpur Nolipara village in Kaliakair.
Konabari Police Station Duty Officer Arif Hossain said Faridul sustained injuries when a wall of their mud house collapsed due to heavy rain on Thursday night.
The child was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Baten Hossain, a member of ward-8 of Mouchak Union Parishad, said the wall of the couple’s mud house in Kaliakair collapsed and fell on them when rain and strong winds lashed the area. Other members of the family found them dead around 8:00am yesterday, he said.
Large parts of Gazipur city were submerged following incessant rain, causing city dwellers to suffer in gridlock.
Traffic congestion was seen on Rajbari Road, Joydebpur Bazar Bus Stand, Kalaptri Road, West Joydebpur, and Joydebpur intersection till noon yesterday.
People’s suffering was heightened due to the ongoing work of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project from Gazipur’s Chandana intersection to Abdullahpur, as vehicles had to use one lane in some parts of the road.
Nadim Morol, a youth, said he left the capital’s Mohakhali for his Joydevpur home around 5:00pm on Thursday afternoon, and it took him around seven hours to reach home, which is usually a one-hour trip.
Alamgir Hossain, deputy commissioner of police (south) of Gazipur Metropolitan Police’s traffic department, said a part of Chandana intersection was submerged.
“We are trying to ease traffic hold-ups by removing broken-down vehicles from the road.”
Our Gazipur, Mymensingh, and Rajshahi correspondents contributed to this report.