4 killed as moving train ‘set on fire’

 At least four people were burnt to death and several others were injured as three carriages of Benapole Express went up in flames in the capital's Golapbagh last night.

The cause of the fire was not known until late last night, but law enforcers said it was likely an act of sabotage.

The fire was first seen around 8:50pm on one carriage of the train moving towards Kamalapur station, witnesses said, adding that the flames soon spread to two other carriages.

After dousing the flames around 11:00pm, firefighters brought out the bodies that were burned beyond recognition.

Lt Col Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director (operations) of fire service, said faulty electric lines could also be the cause of the fire. 

Video footage given to reporters by an Ansar spokesperson shows the train carriages engulfed in flames and the motionless silhouette of a person at a window.

Shaheen Alam, an employee of Dhaka South City Corporation, who was near the scene, said he saw people throwing small children out the windows of the carriages that were on fire.

Then he saw a man stuck while trying to come out of a window. "As I and a few others tried to help him, the man said, 'My wife and child are inside. Please save them first. I am trying to get myself out," Shaheen told this correspondent.

"The moment we tried to open the door, the flames suddenly rose, forcing us to stand back. That man on the window was burnt to death within moments."

A man named Belal Hossain said, "I saw the train slowly passing through Gopibagh area shortly before 9 o'clock. There was a fire on a carriage and panic-stricken people were getting out of it. Many got injured while jumping off the windows."

Atikur Rahman, the power car operator on the train, said when the train stopped and he came outside, "I saw the carriages next to the power car in fire. Then I turned off the generator. We then decoupled the power car from the carriages ahead."

The locomotive and the four coaches then went to Kamalapur Railway Station while the carriages on fire were left there, he added.

Atiar, 60, who was coming to the city from Kushtia, said he and his two sons-in-law jumped off the train, leaving their belongings inside.

Ashraful Haque, 50, a carpenter, along with his wife and two children, was coming from Darshana in "Chha" compartment. He has a flight to Dubai on January 9.

As soon as the train stopped, he gave his three-year-old daughter through a window to a man outside the train.

"My passport and luggage were inside. I saw them get burnt," he said.

SM Joy, an assistant professor at Lalmatia Girls School and College, was coming from Kolkata with his wife. They also lost their belongings.

The incident takes place at a time when over seven lakh law enforcement members are deployed across the country for the January 7 national election.

The BNP called a countrywide 48-hour hartal that starts this morning.

Anwar Hossain, superintendent of Dhaka Railway Police, said, "We suspect that some people boarded the train as passengers and set it on fire."

Similarly, KH Mahid Uddin, additional commissioner (crime) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said, "This is sabotage."

The injured were rushed to different city hospitals including the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

At the scene, Khandaker Al Moin, director of the Legal and Media Wing of Rab, said, "Initially, we have information that it was done by miscreants."

This has been the eighth arson attack on trains since November 16. Nine travellers were killed and scores injured in the incidents so far.

On December 19, four people, including a woman and a three-year-old, were killed after arsonists set fire to Mohanganj Express in the capital.

Railway formed a seven-member committee over the incident.