DHAKA, 8 January 2005 — At least 25 garment workers, mostly females, were burned to death and many others sustained injuries in a devastating fire at a garment factory at Godnail Jelepara in Siddhirganj sub-district in eastern Narayanganj district late Thursday night.
Police said the fire originated from an electric short circuit at the first floor of the four-story Sun Knitting and Processing Factory at about 9 p.m. when its over 250 workers were on duty.
Firefighters from Narayanganj, Dhaka and other nearby areas rushed to the spot and extinguished the fire after several hours of frantic efforts.
Police control room confirmed the death of 23 workers. Five of them were identified as Sufia, 18, Nargis, 18, Jahangir, 30, Dil Mohammad, 30, and Mamun, 25. The injured were taken to local clinics and hospitals.
Narayanganj, about 20 kilometers from the capital, is the hub of Bangladesh’s booming knit garment factories. Fazlul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told newsmen yesterday that only 25 workers out of 250 could not come out of the building during the blaze.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission will ask the VIPs and the rich including ministers, lawmakers, bureaucrats and businessmen in Bangladesh soon to furnish their statements of wealth and property.
The commission is going to set up a cell to collect, keep and update the statements of the VIPs and the rich to begin with, to be followed in respect of people of other walks of life.
A commissioner will be in charge of the cell to be equipped with most modern gadgets. The statements will be made public by posting them on the ACC website, sources said in Dhaka yesterday.
