Another Siddique Bazar blast victim dies as toll rises to 25

Six other blast victims were in hospital care with one of them in life-support

The death toll from the deadly blast at Café Queen building in Old Dhaka Siddique Bazar has climbed to 25 after another victim died.

Jahan Sarder, 25, died around 4:45pm on Tuesday at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery.

Jahan, a first-year student at Government Dohar-Nawabganj College in Dhaka, worked at a mobile repair shop in Gulistan. He used to live in Bibir Bagicha area in Jatrabari.

He was caught in the blast while walking past the building at North South Road on Mar 7.

SM Ayub Hossain, resident surgeon at the hospital, said he had suffered 50 percent burns on his body and was in intensive care.

Another six blast victims were in hospital care there with one of them, identified only as “Hasan”, in life-support, one in the high-dependency unit and others in post-operative ward.

Located on the south of the Fulbaria BRTC bus terminal, the first three floors of the seven-storey building were badly damaged by the explosion. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, the capital development authority, has already stated that the building can be used only after retrofitting, which would take six months.

Police started a case over the incident, citing charges related to deaths caused by negligence and showed two owners of the building and one other arrested in the case.

The arrestees are owners Wahidur Rahman, 46, and Matiur Rahman, 35, and 36-year-old Abdul Motaleb Mintu, who owned a sanitary business in the basement of the building.