Two men whose bodies were recovered from a private car in the parking area of Dr. Sirajul Islam Medical College and Hospital in Dhaka’s Mouchak had traveled from Chatkhil in Noakhali to bring back a child patient from the hospital.
According to the car’s owner, Zobayer Al Mahmud, the victims — Mohammad Mizan of Ramnarayanpur Union’s Ward 9 and Zakir Hossain of Lotkoria village in Khilpara Union — left Noakhali together with him on Saturday night.
Zakir, the driver of the car, and Mizan were close friends. Zobayer said Mizan had come to collect a neighbor’s child who was being discharged from the hospital.
Zobayer explained that he had traveled to Dhaka to drop off his wife’s elder brother at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
After the drop-off, the three arrived in the Malibagh area early Sunday morning, where Zakir put Zobayer on a bus back to Noakhali.
Before parting, Zakir told him that the patient would be discharged around 11 am and that he and Mizan would sleep in the car until then.
However, when Zobayer called Zakir at around 10:45 am, there was no response. Multiple further attempts throughout the day also went unanswered.
Tracking the car via GPS, Zobayer saw it remained in the hospital parking lot. Calls from the family of the patient they had come to collect also went unanswered.
On Monday around 2 pm, police from Ramna Police Station phoned Zobayer, informing him that two bodies had been found inside the car and urging him to come to Dhaka. He then informed the victims’ families and traveled to the capital with them.
Zobayer, who said Zakir had been driving his car for the past three months, confirmed Tuesday morning that both bodies were at the Dhaka Medical College morgue and were scheduled to be handed over to their families later in the day.
Mobarok Ullah, a local ward member from Ramnarayanpur Union and neighbor of Mizan, said Mizan was the eldest of five siblings, worked operating a dredger and fish farming, and was unmarried.
