At least nine people including seven members of a family were burnt alive as locals set fire several houses at Kalshi’s Bihari Camp of Mirpur in the capital in a series of clashes with Bihari people over firecracker explosion early Saturday.The nine people who were burnt to death were identified as Baby, 40, Shahana, 26, Afsana, 20, Farjana, 16, Maruf, 02 twin brothers Lalu, 12, Bhulu, 12 and Roksana, 16, police said.Another person called Azad, 35, who was hit by shot allegedly fired by police during the clashes, succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), hospital sources said.They said that Mohammad Aslam, 50, Badar Uddin, 45 and Arzu, 16, were admitted into the DMCH after Bullet hit. The clashes commited after the Fazr prayers following arguments over exploding firecrackers in front of a mosque on the occasion of the holly Shab-e-Barat.Putting the blame on local Jubo League activists, a group of Bihari people attacked and vandalized a party office in Mirpur area, said the Pallabi Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ziauzzaman,Sheikh Yusuf Harun, deputy commissioner of Dhaka, confirmed the death of nine people, mostly children and women, in a fire that set to the houses at the Bihari camp following the clashes.Local administration was trying their best to bring the situation under control, the DC said while talking to reporters around 1:00pm on the day.Mustaq Ahmed, chairman of a local welfare mission for Biharis, claimed that eight out of 10 deceased are from a same family.The eight were burnt alive when Bangalee people locked them inside their house and set the house on fire, he said.Informed by locals, fire fighters rushed to the camp and brought the fire under control around 9:00am, Fire Service and Civil Defence sources said.The problem erupted when some Jubo League activists blasted crackers in front of a mosque inside the Bihari camp where people were pperforming Fazr prayers, witnesses said.After the prayer, people from Bihari community resisted the Jubo League activists from exploding crackers, generated the sporadic clashes. Getting information, policemen reached the spot and fired pellets targeting the Bihari people, residents of the camp said claiming that at least 100 people were injured during the firing.Four of the injured were rushed to the DMCH where Azad died (35) later, they claimed.On the other hand, Ziauzzaman, officer-in-charge of Pallabi Police Station, claimed that the clash occurred between two rival groups of the Bihari camp.And the arson attack might have also been taken place following the rivalry, he added. After the fire incident, the OC tried to negotiate with the Bihari people to calm the situation but they attacked them, the police official claimed.Talking to teprter, Baby’s brother Md Sentu said his sister and five of her family members were burnt alive in the fire the last morning.Some Jubo League activists went to the Kalshi Bihari camp few days back took take an illegal electricity line for nearby Baunia Bandh Slum for Bangalee people in the area but they were refused, he said.As a sequel to the incident, the Jubo League men might have torched the houses and burned people, he added.Residents of Baunia Bandh slum, 300 yards off Kalshi Bihari camp, claimed that the clashes took place between two rival groups of Biharis.Manir Hossain, a resident of another nearby slum, Balurmath, said he saw around 300 people along with policemen went to the Bihari camp just before the fire incident.The burnt bodies were kept at Standard Pakistanis General Repatriation Committe office till that afternoon. Dhaka’s Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shaikh Yusuf Harun said locals handed over nine bodies to police for autopsy.However, police’s Mirpur zone Assistant Commissioner Kamal Uddin said locals had used firearms during the clashes and it was not to clear how the man had died in the incident. Quoting locals, police officials said that unidentified miscreants attacked the camp in the morning and had set fire to at least 10 houses and damages several others. The local sources said that the camp shelters thousands of Urdu-speaking Muslims who prefer to call themselves ‘abandoned Pakistanis’ and want to go over to the Pakistan. But Pakistan has refused to take them in the country. But the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s (DMP) Mirpur zone Deputy Commissioner Imtiaz Ahmed claimed the clash was between ‘groups of Biharis over explosion firecrackers. Another camp resident, Abdul Shahjahan, claimed six of the victims were from the same family. A witness, Kawshi Arafat, said he had seen a group of people explode up to 50 fire-crackers after the Shab-e-Barat performers.”They attacked a police patrol after the latter had asked them to stop using fire-crackers as it was prohibited,” he said.Police could not get into the camp as locals fought pitched battles with them until noon. The DC Harun said that the local residents had finally agreed to hand over the bodies for autopsy after he negotiated with them.People detained during the clashes will be released, he said and a detailed report on the incident forwarded to the prime minister.The violence left traffic on the Kalshi street suspended since that morning.Dhaka metropolitan Awami League secretary Shahida Tarekh Dipti visited the scene in the last afternoon. Dipti, a former MP, said the government would give Tk 20,000 to each family of the victims and assist in rehabilitating those whose houses have been gutted. The stranded Pakistanis have pointed finger at ruling party MP Ilias Uddin Molla for the attacks, local another sources said. Molla, who has not visited the scene until Saturday afternoon, could not be immediately reached for comment. Pallabi Thana on-duty officer Sub-Inspector (SI) Mahbubul Haq said that police threw several round rubbers bullet to bring the situation to under control. Bullet-injured Aslam’s wife Nazma Begum said that the a clash was held between two rival groups called Biharis and banglalees at around 7:15 am and her husband bullet hit during the clashes.
