Four killed, many injured after train from Bangladesh's Benapole set on fire

Dhaka: At least four people were killed and many injured after suspected arsonists set on fire a passenger train coming from the port town of Benapole, bordering India, in the country's national capital on Friday, two days ahead of Bangladesh's general elections that have been boycotted by the main opposition BNP, officials said.

The incident 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 under way," 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.

“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.

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. 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.