By The Rohingya Post

Cox’s Bazar: Shahana Akter, a four-year-old Rohingya refugee girl, was killed in a road accident inside Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on Sunday.

The accident took place at around 10:45 am local time when a vehicle driven by a Bangladesh police officer stationed in registered Kutupalong Refugee Camp ran over the young girl.

According to witnesses at the time of the tragedy, the officer was seen driving the vehicle at high speed on the narrow road with complete negligence to the presence of children.

Shahana Akter died on the spot with a severe crush of the skull and body. A funeral service was subsequently conducted in the late afternoon to bury the victim.

There was a small demonstration at the site of the accident where Rohingya refugees expressed their frustrations over repeated road accidents in camps resulting in the deaths of several young and old refugees.

Camp-in-charge and several senior police officers met the demonstrators and the family members of Shahana Akter and reportedly promised to investigate the accident thoroughly and bring charges against the officer.

“Today, our lives are being crushed. Our precious gem lost her life prematurely in an avoidable accident. We are heartbroken picking up her broken pieces of skull,” a family member of Shahana Akter told The Rohingya Post.

“We hope Shahana’s tragedy doesn’t go in vain. We urge the government of Bangladesh to bring broad changes to stop road accidents in crowded refugee camps and punish the violators to save innocent lives,” he urged the government.