A tragic accident happened in Bangladesh

At least four people, including two women and a child, died in the Benapole Express train fire at Gopi Bagh in the capital. It is believed that miscreants set fire to the moving train at around 9 pm on Friday night.

Bangladesh Railway and Fire Service said that the train was coming to Dhaka from Benapole in Jessore. The train was set on fire while crossing the Sayedabad area. The train was halted at Gopibagh area shortly before reaching Kamalapur station. Three coaches of the train were burnt in the fire.

According to the fire service, after receiving information at 9:50, their eight units went to the spot and started extinguishing the fire. They brought the fire under control at 10:20. Director General of Fire Service Brigadier General Main Uddin said that four people died in the fire.

After October 28, a total of nine people died in train fire and vandalism.

According to railway sources, the Benapole Express train left Benapole for Dhaka at 1.30 pm. It is scheduled to reach Kamalapur station at 8:45 PM, but is delayed by 25 minutes en route. Railway officials could not immediately tell how many passengers were in the train.

Rasel Hossain, a resident of Gopi Bagh, told Prothom Alo that his house is near the railway line. At 9 o'clock in the night, he suddenly came out of the house after hearing the screams of people and saw the train on fire. Many are getting off the train in a hurry. He said, many locals came forward for rescue work. He also joined the rescue operation.

Witnesses said that while the fire was burning inside the train, some were clamoring to get out through the windows, but the heat was so intense that no one could go near the train. Later the fire service came and started sprinkling water. Passengers who were burnt or injured while disembarking were taken to nearby hospitals and Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute.

Prothom Alo's medical correspondent said that at night Asif Md. Khan (30), Kaushik Biswas (32), Amit Debnath (27) and Nasif Alam (22) were taken to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery and Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Asif told Prothom Alo that he boarded the train with his wife from Bhanga in Faridpur. After the fire, he somehow managed to get his head out of the window. Then local people pulled him out. Some parts of his body were burnt. He claimed that it was not possible to get his wife Natasha out. Of the four bodies recovered, one may be that of his wife.

Raju Ahmed, a student of management department of Jagannath University, was coming to Dhaka in Benapole Express. He told Prothom Alo that he was in the 'J' coach of the train. Unable to use the toilet seat of that coach as it was broken, he went to the front 'C' coach. Suddenly he saw the fire burning in the front 'C' AC coach (air-conditioned). Later he quickly jumped from the train. He said that many of the passengers of his coach left their seats and stood in front of the door.

After the fire, the train was stopped a short distance from the Gopibagh railway gate. At around 10:30 PM, it was seen that the fire was still burning in the train coach. Fire service personnel are working to extinguish the fire. The relatives of the passengers of the train rushed to the spot after receiving the news of the fire. Some people are seen crying without finding their relatives. Local people were also crowding there. Law enforcement personnel were struggling to deal with them. After 10 pm, the fire service personnel brought down the four charred bodies from the train. As the bodies were taken out one by one, anxious relatives thronged to see the bodies. Going to where the bodies were kept, some were claiming the bodies as their own relatives. Several people told this reporter that their relatives are missing.

Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Khandkar Mahid Uddin went to the spot after the train fire at Gopi Bagh. He told reporters that the incident of fire in the train was sabotage. It is clearly understood. They believe that someone has done this incident by boarding the train as a passenger.

Earlier on December 19, miscreants set fire to the Mohanganj Express at Tejgaon station in the capital. Three coaches of the train were completely gutted in the fire. Later bodies of four people including mother and child were recovered from a coach.

According to the information of the Ministry of Railways, five trains were set on fire in different parts of the country since October 28, including yesterday's incident. Apart from this, there was an incident of cutting the railway line. A total of five people died in these incidents before yesterday. Apart from these incidents, 19 arson incidents and 8 cocktail explosions took place on railway lines, according to the railway ministry's calculations.

Following these incidents on the railways, the movement of eight trains on different routes was suspended and the movement of two trains was restricted. Security has also been enhanced on the railways. This incident of fire happened in that.

Director General of Railways Kamrul Ahsan told reporters at the scene that the train that left Benapole had last halted at Faridpur's Bhanga station. TG Party (Train Guard) in charge of security realized the fire while crossing Syedabad area at 8:55 PM. They pulled the chain and stopped the train. The incident so far appears to be sabotage. The train does not have CCTV cameras (closed circuit).

According to railway sources, a seven-member committee headed by departmental signal and telecommunication engineer has been formed in this incident.

Shortly after 11:00 pm yesterday, Fire Service Director (Operation) Lt. Col. Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury told reporters at the scene that the rescue work is ongoing. It's over