Dhumketu Express coaches set on fire

Miscreants set fire to three coaches of a Dhaka-bound intercity train at the Rajshahi Railway Station late Saturday night.

Police suspect activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir were behind the torching of Dhumketu Express train.

Boalia Model Police Station Officer in Charge Ziaul Haque Zia told bdnews24.com: “At least 20-25 youths set the train ablaze around 10pm Saturday. We suspect they were activists of Jamaat and Shibir.”

Three fire fighting units doused the fire around 10:15pm.

Railway Police Sub-Inspector Azhar Ali, who saw the fire being ignited, said youths posing as passengers poured petrol and set three bogies on fire soon after the train reached the station at 9:45pm.

He said the miscreants also exploded one crude bomb as they fled the scene.

The station staff decoupled the coaches right away from the train, he added.

SI Ali said the train was scheduled to start for its return journey to Dhaka at 11:20pm.

Ever since the first war crimes tribunal awarded death sentence to Jamaat executive council member Delwar Hossain Sayedee for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War, rail tracks have been set on fire, fishplates removed and a slipper found missing in Chittagong’s Sitakunda, Feni and Lalmonirhat, respectively.

Six coaches of inter-city Mahanagar Godhuli train derailed late Thursday night following removal of fishplates near Feni. Police and railway officials claim the Jamaat-e-Islami was behind these incidents.

A pro-Jamaat-Shibir facebook page named ‘Basher Kella’ Thursday had posted several sabotage plans including damaging railway tracks.

One of the posts under the heading, roughly translated into English, ‘Things to do’, had 10 disruptive acts to be carried out. The first one was to ‘uproot all railway tracks right away’.