Sheikha Misha Khatun was traveling from Khulna to Dhaka on Sunday morning to take her oral exam for the 50th BCS. She never reached her destination.
The bus she was traveling on lost control and plunged into a ditch in Salinabaksa, on the Dhaka-Khulna road, in the Muksudpur subdistrict of Gopalganj. The accident occurred around 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 6. Two other people also died.
Who She Was
Misha was a student in the 35th graduating class of the Department of Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Dhaka University.
She already had a solid professional track record, working as a chemical examiner at the Bangladesh Institute of Standards and Testing in Khulna, a crucial government technical position.
The journey she was about to embark on wasn’t something she needed to do. She had a career. She was traveling because she wanted to advance, and the 50th interview for the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) was the next step in that direction.
The Condolence Message
The Central Union of Students of Dhaka University (DUCSU) expressed its deep sorrow at her passing.
In its message of condolence, DUCSU described the loss of a talented student with a life full of promise as irreparable, and affirmed that her memory will live on among all who knew her.
The message, signed by DUCSU General Secretary S.M. Farhad, prayed for forgiveness and peace for her soul and expressed its heartfelt condolences to her family and relatives.
The Wider Picture
On August 11, the oral exams for the 50th BCS began at the Public Service Commission headquarters in Agargaon. Candidates traveled to Dhaka from all over the country for interviews scheduled on fixed dates.
For candidates living outside the capital, this means long overnight or early morning journeys on roads that carry a well-documented risk. Misha’s journey from Khulna to Dhaka is the same one thousands of BCS candidates make every year, and the same one many will make in the coming weeks as the next phases of the oral exams take place.
Two other people died alongside her in the same accident. Their journeys had nothing to do with an exam, reminding us that road safety on the Dhaka-Khulna corridor is an issue that extends far beyond the story of a single candidate.
A Note
Behind the numbers from each BCS cycle—the thousands who pass the written exam, the smaller number who are invited for an interview—lie individual lives shaped around a single interview date.
Sheikh Misha Khatun had built a career and aspired to more. Rising Barta expresses its condolences to his family, his colleagues at BSTI, and his fellow students at Dhaka University.
