Tazreen Factory Fire
BGMEA probe finds workers’ link
A section of workers and officials of the factory was involved in igniting the deadly fire at Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia that killed 112 workers on November 24, said a probe report of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association released on Monday.
‘We found names of some workers and officials whose act at that time was suspicious. So we recommend that those people should be interrogated properly to reveal the truth behind this tragic inferno,’ BGMEA president Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin told reporters at a briefing at the BGMEA office.
The BGMEA probe report, however, did not mention the role or the responsibility of the factory owner in the incident although it said faulty material management was the reason behind the fire and the stairs of the building were faulty as well.
A government probe on the same incident recently recommended that the factory owner and nine others, including some linemen and the floor-in-charge should be brought to book for the death of the workers at Tazreen factory.
It also said that neglect of responsibilities by the owner could not be excused as the lack of safety measures in the building had caused such a large number of casualties.
The BGMEA probe report suspected the role of security in-charge Anis, guards Al Amin and Rana, boiler operator Nuruddin and loader in-charge Anwar in the devastating fire.
The report said Anwar and Nuruddin were missing during the fire and they did not ask for permission from any authorities for going out.
It said guard Rana and Anis were on the spot but they did not see anyone at that time which is suspicious.
The spot where the fire originated was the sitting place of the cutting and loading workers, but the BGMEA investigation team failed to interview any worker from that section.
Moreover, none of the cutting and loading workers drew wages after the fire incident which was even more questionable.
It also said that adminstrative manager Dulal Uddin, production managers Mobarak Hossain Monju and Duala Bayragi, quality manager Shahiduzzaman, store manager Hamidul Islam Lavlu restricted the workers from escaping the fire after the alarm and instead asked workers to go back to work.
‘We believe a proper interrogation of the people named in this report will reveal the truth,’ the BGMEA report said.
The BGMEA report also said that the design of the staircase was faulty which worsen the situation while workers tried to escape.
It said the ‘highly flammable’ materials were kept on the 1st floor of the building in a disorganised manner from where the fire had originated.
The devastating fire swept through the nine-storey factory of Tazreen Fashions at Nischintapur in Ashulia on the night of November 24, killing as many as 112 garment workers, mostly women, and injuring scores of others.
-With The Daily Star input
