Security beefed up in the jail after the incident
A fire has broken out at a blanket factory in the capital’s Bakshibazar area beside the central jail on Friday.
Fire Service and Civil Defence control room official Ziaur Rahman said: “fire broke out at the blanket factory, Warming Woolen Mills, adjacent to the Dhaka Central Jail at about 4:20pm. Eight firefighting units rushed in and brought the blaze under control at about 5:30pm.”
“The reason behind the fire could not be known immediately. It will take few more hours to douse the fire. No report of casualty has been filed till writing the report at 5:30pm.”
Inspector General (IG) of Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin visited the spot immediately after the incident.
He told a private TV channel that although the fire did not affect the jail building, the authorities have shifted the inmates to a safer place as part of extra safety measure.
He said: “Factories should not be located near such important establishment like the central jail.”
Dhaka Central Jail is the largest jail in Bangladesh, located in the old section of Dhaka. The jail has been used to house criminals as well as political prisoners and war crimes convicts.
According to the jail authorities, a number of VIP inmates and death row convicts, including war crimes convicts and also Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami and Kamaruzzaman, have been kept at the central jail.
Security in and around the Dhaka Central Jail has been beefed up following the fire incident, said jail authorities.
Additional policemen were deployed around the jail to thwart any unpleasant incident.
Officer-in-Charge of Chawkbazar police station Azizul Haque said three platoons of police have been deployed surrounding the central jail soon after the fire incident.
Besides, officers-in-charge of most of the police stations under Lalbagh division rushed to the spot, he told UNB.
Around 3,000/4,000 prisoners from four wards –– Meghna, Padma, Medical and Monihar –- gathered in an open space inside the jail for safety reason soon after the fire originated.
They would be sent back to their respective wards after the fire was fully doused, police officials said.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
