Fire burnt down another market in the capital after fire had destroyed Bangabazar and New Super Market last year. Hundreds of shops of Mohammadpur Krishi Market have been turned into dust due to devastating fire in early morning on Thursday. However, many people are rising questions over the incident of fire in the early morning when all the shops and the market remained closed.
According to the businessmen of the city, the fire incidents occurred in the markets which were under decision to be broken and restructured. They are worried and frightened over the matter. Some people think a vested group is trying to make the situation of the country unstable by doing these sabotages.
Meanwhile, even experts don’t think the incidents of fire in big markets of the capital in the early hours of the morning are normal. They have demanded an impartial investigation into the incidents of these fires to reveal the truth and make the report public soon. In this regard, Brigadier General (Retied) Ali Ahmed Khan, former Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defense Department, told The Bangladesh Pratidin, “Fire can occur due to various reasons. Whether there was a fault in the power line or not, whether there was any chemical or not, whether all the power lines were closed or not, the sources of fire should be investigated properly. But late-night fires in markets certainly raise suspicions. So there is no chance to rule out sabotage. It needs proper investigation.”
On hearing the news of the fire in the agricultural market in early hours on Thursday, the traders in the vicinity rushed to the spot. Seeing the nature of the fire, they consider it to be sabotage. Traders complained that a fire was suddenly seen at Haque Bakery in the south-east corner of the market in early morning. A short time later another store in the northwest corner was on fire. At the same time, another shop on the south-west side was caught by fire. Three shops at the end of the market should not be set on fire at the same time unless someone sets the fire in a planned manner.
Jamal, a cloth merchant of 'B' block of the market, said, “Thursday was the closing day of the market. For this, I packed up the shop the night before, took the cash and went home. Suddenly around 3 o'clock in the night, I heard people's screams and came running. I came and saw that three separate shops in three corners were on fire. Later it spread everywhere in front of everyone’s eyes.”
Many other traders give similar information. In such a situation, many people want to get an answer to the question whether this fire is just an accident or there are some other reasons.
Earlier, on January 8 last year, the incident of fire also happened in Kaptan Bazar at around 4:30 am. Although 12 units of the fire service departoment brought the fire under control, many shops were burnt to ashes by then. Last April, before Eid, two major markets in the capital caught fire around the same time, in the silent hours of the morning. Many markets also caught fire at night. On April 4, a fire broke out in Bangabazar around 6:10 am. More than 4,000 shops were burnt to ashes. On April 15, a fire broke out at the New Super Market in the New Market area of the capital at 5:40 am. About two and a half hundred shops were burnt. Furthermore, on April 13, a fire broke out in a warehouse in Nawabpur of Old Dhaka around 10 pm. The goods of about half a hundred shops of the market were kept there. Except these incidents, only on April 17, a fire broke out at BGB Market in Sector 7 of Uttara around 10:30 am.
President of Bangladesh Shop Owners Association Helal Uddin on Thuraday after visiting Mohammadpur Krishi Market told the reporters, “Most of the markets that have caught fire in the capital after the last month of Ramadan are city corporation markets. The markets which have been decided to be broken by the City Corporation, the markets which are being decided to be paved, those markets were on fire. The matter does not give rise to doubt?” Expressing anger, Helal Uddin said, “We all know that these are not well-planned markets. We want a fully-built market, that means we will make a complete-market by burning it with fire. If we know the matter 15 days ago, we would have helped to close the market. How will the businessmen overcome this loss now?”
Meanwhile, Dhaka South City Corporation said the market had a fire hazard. Fire Service Director (Operations) Lt. Col. Tajul Islam told the media on Thursday that they were informed earlier that the agricultural market was risky. No basic firefighting equipment was available in this market. There were various problems in this market including illegal shop building, use of excess electrical load etc. All these problems are the reasons behind the fire.
However, Arifur Rahman Tipu, president of Dhaka Metropolitan Traders Shop Owners Association said, “The traders have not received any notice from any authority to increase fire safety or they were not told that the market was dangerous. If any shop trader has received such instructions, then we will accept them.”
He said that every city corporation's market had fire incidents in the early hours of the morning, when the electrical units were at zero consumption. A fire incident occurred on such time must be investigated properly.
(The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on September 15 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque)
