A 10-month-old girl has been killed and several passengers injured when a battery-run autorickshaw overturned after hitting an elephant in Sadarpur, Faridpur.

The accident happened at around 1pm on Tuesday, 28 July, in the Atroshi area of the upazila. The child, Arisha Jannat, was the daughter of Sajib Molla of Gulbandi village in Algi union of neighbouring Bhanga upazila.

According to locals and the family, Arisha's mother was taking her by autorickshaw to see a doctor at Sadarpur hospital. At Atroshi, a man was coming from the opposite direction with an elephant, collecting money from vehicles on the road. As the autorickshaw came in front of the elephant, the animal raised its trunk for money and struck the vehicle, which lost control and overturned. The child, who was with her mother, was trapped under the vehicle and injured. Locals first took her to Bishwa Zaker Manzil General Hospital, and she died on the way to Faridpur Medical College Hospital.

Angry locals beat the elephant's mahout, Bakul Mia, 24, and held the elephant.

Sadarpur police arrived on receiving the news and took the mahout into custody. The detained mahout, Bakul Mia, is the son of Anis Uddin of Madarerchar village in Dewanganj, Jamalpur.

Sadarpur police station officer-in-charge (OC) Md Abdul Al Mamun Shah told Jago News that the mahout had been detained. The victim's family had not yet filed a written complaint, and the process of recovering the elephant and bringing it to the police station was under way.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.