Staff Correspondent
One person died and over two hundred people were wounded in two separate incidents while devotees were returning home after the end of the Biswa Ijtema yesterday.
Over two hundred passengers sustained minor injuries after they jumped off a slow-moving train at Tongi in the afternoon following a false fire alarm. Most of the passengers were travelling on the roof of the heavily crowded train.
In another incident, a devotee died while six others are still missing after a boat carrying them home capsized in the river Turag at Diabari near Mirpur.
Railway and police sources said fire sparks caused by the breaking down of the pressure plates of a boggy of the train caused the panic among the passengers. The plates broke under the weight of the overloaded train carrying passengers far beyond its capacity.
Almost all the passengers were devotees returning from the Bishwa Ijtema congregation and most of them were traveling on the roof of the train or hanging on the doorposts.
Sources said the Dhaka bound train — Mohanagar Godhuli Express — was on its way to Kamalapur rail station after taking on passengers from Tongi station at around 5:00pm.
Mahbubur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Kamalapur Government Railway Police Station, told The Daily Star, “As the train neared Kosaibari between the Tongi and Airport stations, fire sparks broke out and several hundred scared passengers jumped down from the running train.”
“Luckily the train was running slowly and most of the passengers sustained minor injuries”, the OC said.
The injured were taken to different hospitals and clinics.
In the other incident, fire service men recovered the body of 14-year-old Zayed after the trawler capsized at around 3:00 in the afternoon.
Sanowar Hossain, station officer of the fire brigade, said the Gabtoli bound trawler carrying over 35 passengers capsized when another trawler hit it from behind.
Witnesses said they saw some passengers swim to the shore.
Non of the missing passengers were found till writing of this report last night.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
