The incident of killing four people, including a woman and a child, by setting fire to a running train is highly condemnable. Shame on those who are involved in such a heinous act. Miscreants set fire to a compartment of the Dhaka-bound Mohanganj Express as soon as the train stopped at the Airport railway station, and ran away. Apart from the deceased, several others were injured and three compartments of the train were burnt.
The question is how such an incident could happen? Were the authorities on alert? Were there any precautionary measures? We don’t have the answers to these questions. The more concerning issue is that the loco master learnt about the incident 15 minutes after the miscreants set fire, and stopped. Four lives could be saved had the loco master knew about it earlier.
A demand for judicial enquiry has been made on behalf of the opposition. We believe no matter in which way the investigation is carried out, what’s required in this case is an impartial and credible investigation. And the government has to ensure that.
As per the law, each train has a director and there is a supervisor in each of the compartments. However, the supervisor of the compartment on fire didn’t have the number of the loco master. Who will bear the liability of such an irresponsible act? The rail minister has given an account of how many incidents of arson and sabotage occurred in the last few days.
However, a tug of war has already started between the government and opposition parties even before the investigation as usual. Railway minister Nurul Islam and other responsible officials of the government are blaming the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) whereas BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has claimed that it’s the government who was behind the incident and now are blaming them.
However, the rail minister didn’t answer the question as to why additional security measures were not taken despite repeated incidents of sabotage. One of the injured people said he saw some people in uniforms of the security workers getting down from the compartment with fire extinguishers right before the fire broke out. These people with the uniform of security guards should be identified for the sake of the investigation.
It’s the responsibility of the government to protect people’s lives and properties. Holding the opposition liable without any evidence in every incident is only the sign of unhealthy politics. Then again, the political parties carrying out the anti-government movement also have to understand the difference between the movement and the sabotage. Plus they also have to be on maximum alert so that nobody can carry out sabotage activities centering their hartal and blockade programmes that they are holding to have their demands met.
The government and the politics both are there for the welfare of people. Meanwhile, killing people and destroying properties through sabotage are heinous crimes. Those, who are involved in these crimes, must be brought to justice. A demand for judicial enquiry has been made on behalf of the opposition. We believe no matter in which way the investigation is carried out, what’s required in this case is an impartial and credible investigation. And the government has to ensure that.