A madrasa student named Lima Akter (12) has died of a snakebite in Rajapur, Jhalokati.

A snake bit her at 10am on 5 August when she went to collect firewood for cooking from the loft of the house.

Lima was a seventh-grade student at Mathibari Mohammadia Dakhil Madrasa in the upazila and the elder daughter of Liton Howlader of Mathbari village.

The girl's uncle, Rakib Hossain Razzak, confirmed her death from the snakebite.

Local former union parishad member and Awami League leader Delowar Khalifa said the snake bit the girl when she went to collect firewood for cooking from the loft. At first neither the girl nor her family took it seriously. When she became limp, she was treated with incantations by various exorcists (ojha). When her condition worsened further, she was taken to hospital, where the doctor on duty declared her dead.

Mathbari union parishad chairman Shah Jalal Howlader said he had attended the girl's funeral prayer (janaza), and she was buried in the family graveyard.

Amir Hossain, a doctor in the emergency department of the Rajapur health complex, said the emergency department's register had no record of a snakebite death on Friday or Saturday, and that he knew nothing about the matter.

Reported by Atikur Rahman.

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