[ad_1]
An unidentified passenger set fire to a bus in the Pragati Sarani Coca-Cola area in the capital yesterday afternoon. Photo: Kaler Kantho
Surprise and anxiety were extended by Thursday’s sudden fire of terror in the capital, which is busy amid the coronavirus epidemic. One passenger bus after another caught fire in different areas. Eleven buses were set on fire in various places from 12 noon to 6 p.m. Police claimed that the criminals disguised themselves as passengers and set the bus on fire with gunpowder or similar explosives. In most cases, the back of the bus caught fire. Cocktail explosions also occurred at three locations. However, no casualties were reported in these incidents.
Twenty people, including nine from a Juba Dal procession, have been arrested as suspects in the bus fire and explosion.
Yesterday was the by-election of the constituencies of Dhaka-18 and Sirajganj-1. Police claimed that sabotage was carried out in other areas of the capital around the by-elections. Security has been tightened in the capital since noon, police officials said.
Passengers and drivers of public transport, including victims, claim that yesterday the bus was set on fire in the same way that it was set on fire during the strike and blockade around the 10th parliamentary elections in 2013-14. Everyone has expressed anxious surprise at this incident. Because there has been no such arson incident in recent years after that election. By-elections of the constituencies of Dhaka-10 and Dhaka-5 have recently been held. There was no such sabotage at the time.
Leaders of the ruling Awami League have accused the arson attack of being a terrorist act by BNP-Jamaat.
On the other hand, the BNP has demanded re-election by rejecting the by-election of the Dhaka-17 constituency. Party leaders have called the sabotage incident a “model of the government.”
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Media) Walid Hossain told Kaler Kantha late at night that criminals had set fire to buses at nine locations in a planned manner to create sabotage. These incidents are believed to have centered on the ongoing by-elections in the Dhaka-17 constituency. Efforts are underway to identify those involved in the CCTV footage collection, eyewitnesses and law enforcement personnel on duty at various locations. Some have been identified. When asked, he said that the cocktails had exploded in various places. Symptoms of gunpowder or similar explosives have been found. In some places, criminals got on buses. They also set fire to a government vehicle. Several suspects have also been arrested. In each case a separate case is filed.
According to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), at 12:05 pm a fire broke out on a government bus parked in Fiscal Zone 15 on the north side of the BNP office of Paltan Police Station. Agrani Bank staff bus in front of Madhumita Cinema Hall in Motijheel at 1 pm, Victor Classic Paribahan moving bus in front of Ramna Hotel on Bangabandhu Avenue in Gulistan at 1:25 pm, Dewan Paribahan bus in front of Shahbagh Aziz supermarket at 1:30 pm, Rajanigha’s The incident took place at 2:25 pm in the area. The Jainpuri Paribahan bus in the Paltan Thana area at 2:45 pm, the BRTC double-decker bus near Pubali Petrol Pump in Motijheel at 3 pm and another Victor Classic Paribahan at the Coca-Cola intersection of Pragati Sarani below from Bhatara Police Station at 4:32 pm. In each case, the police have been called to the scene and the fire department has been called.
However, according to the fire service, a fire broke out on a bus in the Khilgaon area below the Shahjahanpur police station around 12:30 pm. At night, another bus caught fire near the Azampur overpass in Uttara. A total of 11 buses were set on fire, according to police.
Shahjahan Sardar, a public relations officer for the fire service, told Kaler Kanth that within an hour, six buses caught fire.
A businessman named Rafiqul Islam was a passenger on the burned-out bus in Shahbagh. “He was sitting near the door,” he told reporters. The bus was moving slowly due to the signal. Suddenly I saw a fire burning in the back. Let’s all go down. The whole bus burned down.
Said the bus driver. “My 40-seat bus had 12 to 13 passengers,” Raihan said. After crossing the Katabon sign around 2pm, I suddenly saw a fire in the back of my car. However, the rear seats were completely empty. The fire spread rapidly. It could not be extinguished.
According to some eyewitnesses in the Gulistan and Press Club area, when a Rajnigandha Paribahan bus caught fire in front of the National Press Club, passengers hastily got out. It was not immediately clear who started the fire or how. Some passengers got out of the back first when the Victor Classic Paribahan bus bound for Sadarghat caught fire. Everyone suspects them. Mahmud, a passenger on the bus, said: “Some boys suddenly got out from behind. Then I see the fire in the back. Now who knows if the terror of the fire has started again.
Rabiul Islam, a bus passenger who was staying at the Coca-Cola area in Pragati Sarani after the fire, said: ‘I don’t understand what happened suddenly. Has the terror of fire started again?
Momin Hossain, the driver of Rajdhani Paribahan, said: ‘I saw a fire and terror in 2013. How many people died. Now that terror again? I do not receive passengers like that for Corona. If we don’t do all this, we will have to die. ‘
Paltan OC Abu Bakkar Siddique Police Station said police raided the Juba Dal procession in and around Paltan and arrested nine people. They are checking to see if they are involved in the fire. He added that two young men wearing masks were seen on CCTV cameras when the two were seen fleeing the tax department bus with fire.
Police arrested two suspects in connection with the explosion of a cocktail party at the Malekabanu Adarsh Vidyaniketan school center in Uttara during the by-elections yesterday morning. A man named Sohail was arrested with a cocktail in the area of the Turag police station in the afternoon.
Statements by both parties: When asked, Awami League Deputy Secretary General AFM Bahauddin Nasim told Kaler Kanth that the attack was a clear terrorist activity. BNP-Jamaat has done such a thing in the past. They think of various terrorist acts including the burning of buses, trucks, cars as one movement, but such acts can never be part of the movement. The central committee of the Dhaka South Awami League and Juba League held a protest procession in Gulistan last night to protest the sabotage.
Responding to the accusation that BNP leaders and activists were involved, the party’s vice president, Barkatullah Bulu, told Kaler Kanth: The time has come to unmask those who want to hold the BNP accountable through the politics of arson. , the people will do it in time. A press release signed by Emran Saleh Prince last night said that BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir condemned and protested the incident of setting fire to various public transports in different places in the Dhaka metropolis on the day of the by-elections. in the constituencies of Dhaka-18 and Sirajganj-1. He described the incident as premeditated and intentional.
Mirza Fakhrul alleged that the government was trying to humiliate BNP through these misdeeds and to harass BNP leaders and activists by presenting false and absent cases.
[ad_2]
