Staff Reporter :
At least 12 activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) received burn injuries when a hired bus of Raida Paribahan caught fire due to gas balloons explosion in city’s Farmgate area on Saturday morning.
The injured BCL men were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) with severe burn injuries, said Babul Miah, Assistant Sub-Inspector of DMCH Police outpost.
All the injured activists are mostly teens to young adults, said Dr Samanta Lal Sen, coordinator of DMCH’s Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit,.
“The bus of Raida Paribahan carrying around 40 young activists caught fire in front of Al-Razi Hospital at Farmgate around 10:30am,” said Ataur Rahman, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) Headquarters.
Although one fire fighting unit was dispatched, locals managed to douse the flames before they reached the spot, the FSCD official said.
It is suspected that the fire might have started from gas balloons, which were used for decorative purposes, after someone lit a cigarette inside the bus, according to him.
Mazharul Islam, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Tejgaon Police Station, said, the BCL activists hired the bus from Uttara to join BCL’s joy rally at TSC on Dhaka University ahead of the founding day of the BCL. The fire might have originated from a cigarette.”
