A man was allegedly pushed off a minibus, run over and killed following an altercation with the driver's helper in City Gate area near the port city yesterday.

The death sparked protests among locals who barricaded the Dhaka-Chittagong highway in the area for nearly an hour.

The victim, Rezaul Karim Roni, 35, was a businessman from the same area.

His elder brother Zillur Rahman said Roni was in the bus on his way home from Bhatiary. Suddenly around 1:35pm, he called Zillur over his mobile phone and asked him to come near the City Gate, saying he had “some issues with the driver and his helper”.  

Members of the victim's family wail inside their home in the same area. Photo: Collected

“I rushed to the spot … it took just five to seven minutes to reach there, but I saw my brother lying on the road. He seemed to be in a critical state,” he said.   

“Some passengers of the bus told me that the helper pushed my brother off the vehicle and the driver drove it over him.”

The passengers tried to catch the driver and the helper, but the two got down and fled, Zillur added.

Roni was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead around 2:00pm, said Inspector Amir Uddin of CMCH Police Camp.

As the news spread, locals poured into the highway and put up a barricade in the City Gate area, an entry point of the port city, around 3:00pm, demanding immediate arrest and punishment of the driver and his helper.

“This is not an accident, it's a murder,” said Rezaul Karim, a relative of the deceased.

The road blockade led to traffic jam.

Rezaul Karim

Contacted, Jasim Uddin, officer-in-charge of Akbar Shah Police Station, said on information, police went to the spot and dispersed the protesters.

Police seized the vehicle and were trying to arrest the driver and helper, he said.

No case was filed when this report was filed around 11:00pm.

Last month, the driver, his helper and the supervisor of Hanif Paribahan bus threw North South University student Saidur Rahman Payel into a roadside canal after he was injured while getting into the vehicle.

The supervisor, Mohammad Johnny, revealed this in his confessional statement to a magistrate.