Right ahead of the general election in the country on January 7, Bangladesh witnessed a massive train arson on Friday which killed at least five people, including two children while several others sustained injuries. It has been reported that arsonists set on fire a passenger train coming from Benapole, a port city bordering India.
According to the officials, the major incident happened around 9 pm when four carriages of the Benapole Express that runs from Benapole, a town bordering the Indian state of West Bengal, were set on fire as it nearly reached its destination of the capital’s Kamalapur Railway Station. Most of the 292 passengers were on their way back home from India and the train was set on fire as it reached the Gopibagh area near the station.
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According to a report by Somoy TV, some Indian nationals were also travelling on the train.
Initially, the railway officials were not able to confirm how many people were wounded. However, it was reported that people in the neighbourhood first reached the scene and sent several fire-wounded people to Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit and some other facilities.
In recent months, Bangladesh witnessed a couple of train-related incidents.
Unidentified saboteurs On December 19 set a train ablaze killing four people, among them a mother and child, amid an opposition called countrywide strike on that day.
One passenger was killed and dozens wounded as saboteurs uprooted railway tracks when seven carriages derailed in Gazipur on the outskirts of the capital in early December.
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On January 2, a train carrying some 300 passengers narrowly averted a major crash at the last minute as suspected saboteurs removed 28 dog spikes or hooks from the tracks on a railway bridge in northern Bangladesh.
Awami League accused BNP of carrying out the sabotages, which the party denied.
Bangladesh Polls on January 7
On Sunday, January 7, Bangladesh goes to the polls. More than 100 foreign observers, including three from India, have reached Dhaka to monitor the general election.
Led by former prime minister Khalida Zia, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is boycotting the general election as it is demanding an interim non-party neutral government to hold the election.
The demand was rejected by the government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is heading the ruling Awami League
