In a heart-wrenching incident that highlights a profound lack of empathy in urban public transport, 64-year-old university professor Najeebur Rahman died inside a crowded metro rail in Dhaka. An associate professor of the Arabic department at the National University, he was returning to Uttara after attending an event at Dhaka University on the afternoon of October 24. Due to the end of a long holiday rush, the metro compartment was overwhelmingly packed, forcing passengers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder.
According to accounts from his family and traveling companions, Professor Najeebur began feeling extremely unwell as the train approached the Sheorapara area. Holding onto the interior handles amidst heavy pushing and shoving, he requested seated passengers multiple times to allow him a place to sit down. Tragically, none of the passengers responded to his earnest pleas. Within a minute or two of these unanswered requests, the elderly educator collapsed onto the train's floor.
Following the tragic event, his son Nakibur Rahman expressed deep emotional distress and a lifelong regret, noting that had someone simply offered his father a seat, he might not have collapsed on the floor in such a helpless manner. This incident has sparked widespread sorrow and serious soul-searching across the country regarding the behavior of commuters in public transit systems.
Transport experts and citizens point out that while metro authorities implement various safety measures, the lack of basic humanitarian courtesy among fellow passengers remains a critical societal failure. Reserved seating areas are often overwhelmed during peak hours, but the sheer indifference shown by individuals to an elderly person in acute physical distress underscores a alarming decline in social empathy.
The untimely demise of a respected educator under such distressing circumstances has cast a pall of grief over the academic community and the general public alike, serving as a grim reminder of the urgent need for greater compassion and mutual respect in daily public life.
