'Train Torched Under BNP's Direction'

Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman has blamed the central command of the BNP for the deadly arson attack on a train in Dhaka, saying he believes the connections are 'clear as daylight.'

Citing given by the arrestees in different sabotage cases during the hartals and blockades enforced by the opposition party, the DMP commissioner said the 'local agents of the BNP executed the orders' given by their 'foreign leaders,' as he spoke to the media on Tuesday after visiting the victims of the arson attack on the Mohonganj Express.

Arsonists set fire to the Mohanganj Express train from Netrokona as it arrived in Dhaka early on Tuesday (December 19) morning. Three of the train's carriages burnt. The fire service recovered the four bodies from one of the compartments after they put out the blaze.

The police later sent the bodies to the morgue at DMCH. Two have been identified as Nadira Akhtar Poppy, 35, and her 3-year-old son Yasin. The two other male victims were not identified as of 11 am.

"We couldn't use fingerprints to identify the dead as they were burnt horribly. We'll use DNA samples for identification," the police commissioner said.

The saboteurs were aboard the Mohonganj Express, Rahman said, citing an injured passenger who witnessed the incident.

He said the passenger had seen how the train was torched and how the fire spread. The entire train was filled with smoke, and panicked passengers began to run about.

"Some passengers jumped out of the train through the windows to escape the fire. Since it was early morning, many passengers were sleeping."

"Nadira Akter Poppy and her 3-year-old son Yasin died together clinging to each other. Maybe they tried to save themselves. The mother tried to save the child while the child thought it was safe to cling to his mother. But they both died tragically," the police commissioner said.

The identified bodies will be handed over to the family without an autopsy, and a case will be filed with the Railway Police Station, he said.

Superintendent Anwar Hossain of Railway Police in Dhaka believes the incident may have been politically motivated.

Meanwhile, the BNP issued a statement saying the arson attack on the train was a 'crime against humanity' and demanded a judicial probe. It also said the incident was a 'scheme' to divert the public's attention from their democratic protest movement.

Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman, however, directly blamed the BNP for the incidents of sabotage, including the torching of trains.

"You're aware that the activists of a political party have been destroying the lives and assets of the people in the name of enforcing hartals and blockades. The torching of the Mohonganj Express was a part of it," he said.

When the reporters asked the commissioner for specifics, he said, 'Those enforcing hartals and blockades' torched the train. "They did this [type of sabotage] before by uprooting rail tracks in Gazipur. One person died in that incident when the Mohonganj Express derailed."

"I would call all these incidents murders. It's a part of the decisions made by their central command, and their agents executed it," he said.

The commissioner said that the saboteurs arrested in earlier incidents confessed that they committed the crimes following orders from their central leaders to keep their political dreams alive.

A reporter asked who gave orders when most BNP leaders were in jail. The commissioner responded that it was evident that BNP leaders living abroad were giving the orders, and the local agents were executing them.