A seven-year-old girl died on Sunday when a pick-up van rammed into the two-wheeler she was on, on NH512 in Trimohini of South Dinajpur near the India-Bangladesh border.

Sources said Kamana Sarkar, along with her daughter Koli, were headed home to Panjul village under Hilli police station on the bike that their relative Sanjoy was riding. On the way back, they stopped beside the highway when a pickup van carrying poultry to Hilli lost control and hit the bike.

Kamana and her daughter Koli were critically injured while Sanjoy escaped with cuts and bruises. Residents took the mother-daughter duo to the district hospital in Balurghat where doctors pronounced Koli dead. Kamana was referred to the Malda Medical College & Hospital.

As the news spread, residents blocked the road for an hour, alleging lack of police vigil. “Hundreds of trucks bound for Bangladesh are parked along the highway, which narrows it and causes accidents. We want the police to take steps,” said one of the protesters, Jayanta Pramanik.

Hilli police station OC Pritam Singh pacified protesters. Police seized the bike and pick-up van, but its driver fled.

Commission visit

A three-member team of the West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) headed by chairperson Ananya Chakraborti Chatterjee on Sunday visited the home of the two tribal girls, sisters aged 14 and 16 in Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri, who were allegedly abducted and gang-raped earlier this month.

The sisters had drunk pesticide after the incident, and the older one died.

The WBCPCR team visited the family members and the other sister who is hospitalised in Jalpaiguri. During their visit, a group of BJP workers demonstrated at Rajganj police station, alleging the police were not probing the case properly. So far, five youths have been arrested in connection with the case, police said.

Blaze guts 4 shops

Four shops were gutted in a blaze in Maynaguri of Jalpaiguri early on Sunday morning. Fire engines doused the flames. Shop owners claimed goods worth lakhs were damaged. Fire officials started a probe on the cause of the blaze.

Additional reporting by our Jalpaiguri correspondent