Massive blaze burns Dhaka Airport cargo village: A planned sabotage?
A devastating fire ravaged Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport cargo village in Dhaka on Saturday, shutting down flight operations at the airport for about seven hours, after the two consecutive big factory fires.
In fact, the airport blaze falls in a chain having occurred hot on the heels of two factory fires in the capital’s Mirpur and in the port city’s Export Processing Zone (EPZ).
The incident which left at least 27 people injured, including fire-fighters and Ansar, also led to complete disruption of flights to and from the country’s main airport.
Businesses fear a huge amount of economic losses worth $1 billion as imported merchandise burnt. However, the flight operations resumed at 9:00 on Saturday night after fire was brought under control.
The repeated incidents of fire in economically and socially significant locations in Bangladesh have deeply worried the public, particularly the businessmen.
A string of simultaneous conflagrations in sensitive areas — the readymade garment factory in Dhaka; industrial units in the Chattogram EPZ; and the country’s main gateway, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport — has raised a question: Are these mere accidents or a planned conspiracy?
In Mirpur incident, at least 16 people lost their lives in the factory inferno on Tuesday.
Two days later on Thursday, another towel and medical equipment factory in the Chattogram’s EPZ caught fire. The fire started in a warehouse on the seventh floor of a seven-story building.
The fire immediately spread throughout the factory. We are witnessing that major fires have become a regular occurrence.
We may recall that in the past few years, there have been terrible fires in many garment and chemical warehouses.
The country’s media and civil society have been constantly talking about fire prevention. Even though there is a court order to move chemical warehouses from Old Dhaka, that order is not being followed.
Institutions related to the fire risk are also not fulfilling their responsibilities.
Every time a fire occurs, the incident is discussed for a day or two, condolences are expressed for the dead, and an investigation committee is formed; but that’s it. Then everyone forgets everything and, as usual, another fire occurs.
We want that the real cause of every fire incidents be revealed and if anyone is found guilty, they will be brought to justice.
Everyone involved must also be careful to prevent the recurrence of such fires in the future.