Train fire in Benapole: opposition leader of eight arrested for arson, BNP demands UN investigation
Eight people, including a prominent opposition leader, have been arrested by Dhaka police after four Benapole Express coaches were set on fire in Bangladesh on Friday evening.
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Dhaka police on Saturday arrested eight people, including a prominent leader of the opposition BNP party, in connection with Friday’s arson of a train in the heart of Dhaka, which killed at least four people, ahead of the opposition’s boycotted elections in Bangladesh.
Four coaches of the Benapole Express running from Benapole, bordering West Bengal, were set on fire at around 9 pm on Friday in the Gopibagh area, less than two kilometers from its destination, Kamalapur railway station in the capital.
The eight arrested include Nabi Ullah Nabi, co-founder of the BNP group in southern Dhaka city, and five activists from Jubo Dal, the main youth wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
“Nabi Ullah Nabi and Jubo Dal activist Mansur Alam were among the planners and financiers of the train arson, which was planned via video conference,” The Daily Star newspaper quoted Harunor Rashid, head of the Criminal Investigation Department (DB) of the Police. and Additional Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) also says this.
“At least 12 to 13 leaders of the Jubo Dal units, including Mansur, held a video conference around 6 pm on Thursday. They planned arson on Kishorganj-Narsingdi and Narayanganj-Kamalapur routes and crude bomb attacks on several polling stations in different districts,” Harun told a press conference at the DMP media center.
The Daily Star also said, quoting DB chief Harun, that police have recovered clips of the video conference. “One of them agreed to carry out the arson on the train. Nabi was not present at the video conference but was one of the financiers and advisors of the attack,” he said.
The DB head identified the other six arrested and said: “The planners engaged known criminals in the arson. The detectives knew their names and tried to arrest them.”
However, the BNP, led by former Prime Minister Khalida Zia, demanded a UN-supervised investigation into the incident, calling it a “pre-planned” act of sabotage ahead of Sunday’s general election, which the party has boycotted and called for. a nationwide 48-hour strike starting at 6 a.m. on Saturday.
In a statement, BNP Senior Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi expressed concern over the “heartbreaking” incident of casualties “due to arson by miscreants” on the Benapole Express train.
“There is no doubt that the Benapole Express train fire was an act of sabotage, which led to loss of life,” The Daily Star newspaper quoted Rizvi and further said that the BNP leader called for an investigation under UN -monitoring of the incident. .
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported that Bangladesh Railways has formed a seven-member committee to investigate the incident, find out the reason behind it and fix responsibility.
Of the four, three carriages were completely burned. Railway officials said most of the train’s nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed deep shock and sadness over the loss of four lives and ordered the concerned authorities to investigate whether the fire was an act of sabotage.
More than 100 foreign observers, including three from India, have reached Dhaka to monitor the general election, which will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Led by former Prime Minister Khalida Zia, the BNP boycotted the general elections because it wanted an interim party-neutral government to hold the elections, a demand that was rejected by the government led by Hasina, also the head of the ruling Awami League (AL ). ) party.
In the run-up to January’s elections, Bangladesh witnessed a number of train-related arsons, in addition to several incidents of violence in recent months.
On January 2, a train carrying some 300 passengers narrowly avoided a major crash at the last minute when suspected saboteurs removed 28 dog spikes or hooks from the tracks of a railway bridge in northern Bangladesh.
An unknown person set fire to a train on December 19, killing four people, including a mother and a child, amid an opposition that day called a nationwide strike.
Earlier this month, one passenger was killed and dozens injured when saboteurs uprooted railway lines when seven carriages derailed in Gazipur, on the outskirts of the capital.
Awami League accused the BNP of carrying out the sabotage, which the party denied.
(Only the headline was reworked by India.com staff. The copy is from an agency feed)