Bangladesh: At least four people have died including two children and several others are injured after a train was set on fire in Dhaka. The incident took place in Benapole Express train in capital's Gopibagh when four of its coaches were set ablaze. According to reports, some Indians were also travelling in the train.
The incident has come just two days ahead of the General Elections in the country and is being seen as an attempt to trigger pre-poll violence to vitiate the atmosphere.
It 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.
"So far we have found four bodies... searches are still underway," Shahjahan Shikdar, the spokesman of Fire Service and Civil Defence, told newsmen at the scene.
Railway officials said that most of the train’s nearly 292 passengers were returning home from India and the train was set on fire at 9 PM as it reached the Gopibagh area near the station.
Fire service chief Brigadier General Mohammad Main Uddin, meanwhile, said two of the dead were minor children.
“When we tried to bring out a middle-aged man through a window of the train but he asked me to leave him and rather save his wife and children from inside,” a local youth was seen telling the private Jamuna TV.
He said soon fire engulfed the man's and he died shortly thereafter. A report by the Somoy TV said that some Indian nationals were also travelling in the train.
While the railway officials could not immediately confirm how many people were wounded, private TV channels said 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.
Bangladesh goes to polls on Sunday
The incident has taken place ahead of the national elections in Bangladesh. The country is set to vote on Sunday. 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.
Foreign Ministry officials said a three-member delegation from the Election Commission of India reached Dhaka on Friday while 122 others from different countries were set to be here ahead of the January 7 polls, which the United Nations said would watch closely.
With inputs from PTI
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