At least four passengers, including a child, were killed as miscreants set fire to three coaches of Mohanganj Express train near Tejgaon Railway Station in Dhaka early Tuesday.
Fire service recovered the bodies of Nadira Akter Poppy, 35, and her three-year-old son Md Yasin, Rashid Dhali, 60, and an unidentified man from one of the coaches, said Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director (media) at Fire Service and Civil Defence Headquarters.
The incident occurred at the Dhaka-bound train from Netrakona around 5am and the firefighters managed to douse the flame around 6:45am, he said.
Victim Nadira’s brother Habibur Rahman told the media that Nadira and her two sons went to their village home in Netrakona two weeks ago and were returning to Dhaka by that train.
He said some passengers got down from the train at Tejgaon railway station and he noticed the fire at the rear part of the compartment. He managed to get off the train with Nadira’s elder son Fahim but his sister and nephew got trapped.
Rashid’s family members went to Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s morgue in the afternoon and identified his body. Police, however, said they will wait for DNA profiling result before handing over the body to them for burial.
Belal Ahmed, a nephew of the victim said, they identified his uncle's body by sweaters, fingernails, and shoes. Rashid Dhali who ran a business of readymade garments hailed from Sadar upazila of Netrakona.
Quoting the passengers, Tejgaon police station's officer-in-charge (OC) Mohammad Mohsin said that passengers noticed the fire when the train reached Khilkhet area. The train stopped near Tejgaon station as passengers started screaming for help.
An Act of Sabotage
Those who are enforcing hartals and blockades are behind arson attack on a train in Tejgaon, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Habibur Rahman said.
“You all know that a political party is destroying lives and property in the name of hartals and blockades, and primarily police believe that the arson attack on a train in Tejgaon is also a part of this,” he said while talking to reporters at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
“I want to say that those who called hartals and blockades are behind the arson attack on a train. Those who have committed such crimes before have been arrested and they have given such statements,” he added.
Referring to Gazipur train derailment, the DMP chief said that one person died in the incident as miscreants cut off the rail track. “I would say the man was killed because of this. I want to call every death caused by such acts of sabotage ‘murder’,” he said.
Police believe that those behind these incidents are part of the hartals and blockades, and certainly central decision is involved. Followers of the party are carrying out the attacks through their men, said the DMP commissioner.
After talking to a person who was injured in Tuesday’s arson attack on the train and undergoing treatment at a hospital, they came to know that perpetrators in the guise of train passengers carried out the attack.
“According to the victim, a seat was first set on fire which soon spread and passengers started running. Some were jumping out of the train through the windows and some through doors. As the attack was carried out at dawn, many were asleep,” said Habibur.
Replying to a question on whether the attackers were following orders of any leader abroad as many leaders are in jail, the DMP chief said, “Those who are calling hartals, carrying out arson attacks and sabotage, they are doing these at the behest of their leader living abroad through his local agents. It is as clear as daylight.”
Responding to another query, Habibur said necessary steps will be taken to ensure deployment of law enforcers in each train compartment to avert such incidents.
The railway authorities have taken an initiative to deploy law enforcers on train, the DMP chief said.
Meanwhile, BNP says that Tejgaon train burning was a planned act of sabotage.
Terming it a planned act of sabotage by a certain quarter, they demanded an immediate impartial judicial inquiry into the incident.
In a statement, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi 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 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 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 demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment for the miscreants involved in the Mohanganj Express train 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.
On the other hand, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said that the fire was an act of sabotage by the BNP.
Asked about the BNP’s statement that vested quarters were responsible for such attack to divert people’s attention from the democratic movement, the minister said that BNP cannot confuse people anymore by giving such statements.
The BNP and its allies were observing countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal on Tuesday demanding scrapping the national election slated for January 7 next year.
