Photo : Messenger
At least four people, including a child, were killed as arsonists set fire to the Dhaka-bound Mohanganj Express train in the capital's Tejgaon Railway station area early Tuesday, just an hour before the start of a hartal called by the BNP and likeminded opposition parties.
Three carriages of the train were set on fire around 5:04 am, Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence headquarters media cell, confirmed.
Upon receiving the information, three firefighting units from Tejgaon Fire Station rushed to the spot and tamed the blaze around 6:45 am, he said.
The bodies of the victims were recovered from one of the compartments, added the officer.
Of the deceased, two were identified as Nadira Akhter Popy, 35, and her three-year-old son, Yasin, said Inspector Bachhu Mia, in-charge of DMCH police camp.
In this tragic event, Nadira Akhter Popy, a mother with a 3-year-old child, clutched her son to her chest and tried to flee the train carriage to escape the fire. Sadly, they were unable to escape the billowing smoke, and both perished in the fire.
Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan has announced that 2,700 members of the Ansar are being deployed to strengthen railway security.
The move comes after an arson incident on a train in Dhaka's Tejgaon on Tuesday that killed four and prompted the formation of a five-member committee to investigate the matter.
During a discussion session at the Railway Ministry conference room on Tuesday, Sujan said the Railway Ministry has also sent a letter to the Home Ministry seeking help from law enforcement agencies to bolster security in areas trains pass through.
The minister claimed those orchestrating political programmes are responsible for these acts of sabotage on the railways.
Meanwhile, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Habibur Rahman visited the injured in the hospital at noon.
“None of the arson attackers on the train that killed four innocent passengers will be spared,” he told the journalists when visiting the injured passengers of the train at Dhaka Medical College (DMH) Hospital in the afternoon.
Habibur said, “The arson attacks are being carried out hours before and during the hartal and blockade programs. We are trying to identify and arrest those who torched the train.”
He said people of a political party have been destroying people's properties and killing innocent people in the name of hartal and blockade, adding, “Police initially believed that this vandalism (on Mohanganj Express) is a part of those activities. Those who are blocking roads, those who are enforcing hartal (strike) are doing it. Those who had committed such incidents earlier have also been arrested.”
The Ministry of Railways has formed a 5-member investigation committee in the incident of sabotage. Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan informed this at a press conference.
He said a five-member investigation committee, headed by the district transport officer of the railway, has been formed in the case of the fire in the train in Tejgaon. The committee has been asked to submit its report within the next five working days.
Besides, Awami League General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said those responsible for killing four people, including a child, by setting fire to a moving train won't be spared.
“The arson attack on a moving train in Bangladesh was like those attacks being carried out on Palestinians by Israeli forces. The arsonists won't get spared,” he said while inaugurating a
"victory procession" in front of IEB auditorium adjacent to the historic Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital.
BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Advocate Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, on the other hand, said the Mohanganj Express train fire incident is an act of well-planned sabotage. His party BNP also demanded an immediate impartial judicial inquiry into the incident of setting the Dhaka-bound Mohanganj Express train on fire.
In a statement on Tuesday, he said this kind of heinous and atrocious crime is only possible with the help of anti-people forces. “Those who set fire to a train at Tejgaon in Dhaka today and took the lives of four passengers are undoubtedly inhuman. It’s not possible without the involvement of special quarters,” he said.
The BNP leader said there is deep suspicion among the public whether this incident was carried out as a ploy to divert public attention away from the ongoing democratic movement. "Saboteurs are the enemies of humanity. I’m deeply concerned over this barbaric and heartbreaking incident and I strongly condemn it. We demand an impartial judicial inquiry into the incident," Rizvi said.
He strongly demanded the immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of the miscreants involved in the Mohanganj Express fire incident. The BNP leader also prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls of those who were killed and speedy recovery of the injured.
According to railway sources, vandals set fire to 3 compartments of the Tangail commuter train at Tangail railway station at midnight on November 15 amid adequate security arrangements. On the following November 16, a fire was set on the railway track in Dinajpur's Birampur railway station area. Before that, there was an arson incident at Matikata railway bridge in Gazipur. On November 6, Jamaat-Shibir workers protested by burning tires on the Dhaka-Mymensingh railway. Miscreants set fire to Dhirashram area between Joydevpur-Tongi station. Miscreants attacked the Maitri Express train at the loco shed area of Ishwardi on November 1. Stones and bricks along with petrol were pelted on the train around noon that day. Several coaches were damaged in this along with broken glass of the train.
Earlier, on December 13, one person was killed and several people were injured after a 20-foot stretch of rail track was deliberately removed by unidentified miscreants, leading to the derailment of the Mohanganj Express in Gazipur.
Messenger/Disha
