In darkness for 6 days

The burned down substation of Palli Bidyut Samity in Shibganj, Chapainawabganj. Photo: Star

The entire Shibganj upazila and some adjacent areas in the district have been in the dark for the last six days after Jamaat-Shibir activists burned down a power substation at Kansat on Thursday.
The blackout has left some 40,000 people without electricity, said Palli Bidyut (Rural Electrification Board) officials.
Of 55,000 subscribers of the substation, only 15,000 are getting electricity from Moharajpur and Amnura substations in Sadar upazila and Bholahat substation in Bholahat upazila.
The arson, vandalism and looting at the Kansat substation and its office have caused state-run REB a loss of Tk 200 crore, according to preliminary estimates.
"The financial loss could be much higher as the whole set-up and valuables have been burned to ashes. We would know the full extent once we get the final assessment report," REB Chairman Brig Gen Moin Uddin told a press conference at Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission in the capital yesterday.
He could not confirm when the system would get back in operation. "It could take several weeks. We are mobilising equipment to restore the system."
People of Shibganj are partially detached from the rest of the country now, as they cannot watch television and use mobile phones.
Farmers are suffering the most, as large swathes of land could not be irrigated due to the prolonged power cut. The outage has been hampering Boro cultivation in Shibganj and parts of Sadar and Gomostapur upazilas.
Enamul Haque, a farmer in Ranihati village, said his paddy fields had dried up, as he could not operate his deep tube wells due to the blackout.

A dried out paddy field in the area as there is no irrigation due to a blackout following the arson. The photos were taken recently. Photo: Star

Electricity from Kansat Palli Bidyut substation helps irrigate 1,200 hectares of land in the area from about 150 deep tube wells.
Besides, another 3,038 hectares of land is irrigated by 1,499 shallow tube wells and 92 hectares by 15 low lift pumps, said Abul Kalam Azad, deputy director at Department of Agriculture Extension in Chapainawabganj.
On February 28, some 2,000 activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir carried out the arson attack on the substation around 1:30pm, immediately after the International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee to death for crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.
Talking to The Daily Star, Ansar member Mohammad Rubel, who was guarding the power installation at that time, said the Jamaat-Shibir men came in front of the substation, chanting slogans demanding release of Sayedee.
Seeing them armed with sticks, iron rods and sharp weapons, Rubel locked the main gate of the compound.
But the attackers broke in and started vandalising the substation and the adjacent office, five residential quarters and a rest house.
At one stage, they set the substation afire and looted valuables from the REB office and residential quarters, said electrician Bashir Ahmed of the office.
Two jeeps, 39 motorcycles and around 50 bicycles were also destroyed during the rampage.
Shahdeb Kumar, a messenger of the office, said he was serving there on contractual basis. As all his official documents have been burned in the incident, future of his service has become uncertain.
Family members of the staff also suffered badly. Most of them fled their quarters, leaving behind valuables and belongings, said Nurul Islam, assistant general manager (finance) of the office.
Even the admit cards and books of many SSC examinees were burned.
Ohidul Islam, deputy assistant director of Chapainawabganj fire station, said firemen from five stations could not reach the scene immediately as the attackers barricaded the Chapainawabganj-Sona Masjid land port highway.
The firefighters managed to be at the spot around 5:30pm. They, however, could not to douse the flames before Saturday.
Mamunur Rashid, area manager of private telecom company Robi Axiata Limited, said 20 out of 28 mobile phone towers in Shibganj and adjacent areas have run out of backup power and are now out of order.
Three cases were filed with Shibganj Police Station on Tuesday, accusing 200 named and around 14,000 unidentified persons on charges of arson, looting, and damaging of public property.