Bangladesh: Police blame opposition for deadly train fire

DHAKA, Bangladesh: At least four people died Tuesday when a train caught fire in the Bangladeshi capital, with police accusing opposition activists of deliberate sabotage ahead of general elections. Dhaka Railway Police chief Anwar Hossain said the victims were dead and photographs published by the fire service showed the llamas jumping from the railway wagon. “We have recovered four bodies,” Hussein told AFP. “We suspect that this is an act of sabotage. “We suspect that those who called for rioting and blockade of transport have carried it out and their associates.” Bakul Akhtar, a 50-year-old passenger who was traveling in the damaged train that caught fire when it reached Dhaka shortly before dawn on Tuesday, told AFP: “We were engulfed in smoke… everyone Was struggling to breathe.” Akhtar was separated from his 20-year-old son Khokon Miyan amid the chaos. “Rejoice that he may live,” he said. Police said this is the second case of alleged attack on a train in the last week. Agents detained at least seven members of the opposition National Party of Bangladesh (BNP) after a train derailed north of the capital on December 13, killing one person. The BNP, as well as other parties including the country’s largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami, are boycotting the January 7 elections. He has been holding periodic protests and transport blockades at the national level to demand votes under a neutral government, saying that any election will not be free and fair if Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina remains in power. Hasina rejected the demands considering them unconstitutional. Police have arrested thousands of opposition officials and activists accused of violence during protests that escalated on October 28, in which at least 11 people were killed and about 376 vehicles were set on fire, according to agents. BNP spokesperson A.K.M Wahiduzzaman denied that his party was behind the acts of vandalism and blamed the authorities for “false flag” actions to defame the opposition. “These are pre-planned false flag operations aimed at inciting opposition violence,” he told AFP. Hasina has overseen long-term economic growth in the world’s eighth-most populous country during her 15 years in power, but has drawn international concern over democratic decline and miles of extrajudicial executions.