Tejgaon train fire: Police suspect 3 arsonists boarded from airport station

Police said they suspect that the arsonists, who set three bogies of Mohanganj Express on fire in Tejgaon today, boarded the train from the Airport Railway Station.

"We are suspecting that three persons take the train from airport station boarded three compartments. They might have set the fire to the coaches pouring petrol," Md Mizanur Rahman, superintendent of police of Police Bureau of Investigation, told The Daily Star.

"The primary findings prove that it is an act of sabotage," Mizanur Rahman said.

He said police are now collecting CCTV footage from the airport and Tejgaon stations to collect information about the passengers.

Parbat Ali, the on-duty station master at Tejgaon Railway Station, told The Daily Star that the train left Mohanganj Station in Netrokona around 11:00pm last night and reached the airport station around 4:50am. The train was supposed to go directly to Kamlapur Railway Station and the green signal was given for it, he said.

"But I saw smoke coming out from the compartment of the train when it reached Tejgaon station around 4:58," said Parbat.

"Then, I immediately turned the emergency switch on to make the train stop. Seeing the red light, the driver stopped the train but it had already reached the railway gate by then," he said.

Parbat said the fire was in the compartments Chha, Ja, and Jha. "We tried to douse the fire with the firefighting tools at the station, and also informed fire service by calling emergency helpline number 999," he said.

Shafiqul Islam, station master of the Tejgaon Railway Station, told The Daily Star that the compartments can catches fire from train wheels but there was no fire outside the train.

"The fire was only inside the train compartment, so we are suspecting it might have originated from inside," he said.