DHAKA, 7 March 2007 — At least 21 people were killed in a fire that raged through a slum district of Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong early yesterday, police and witnesses said.
They said the dead included 10 children and eight women, and that around 25 others were injured and taken to hospital.
The blaze erupted in the city’s Bau Bazar slum in the Bakulia area, gutting at least 30 houses before fire fighters brought it under control after four hours. Six storage areas for garment factory waste, adjacent to the slum, were also gutted.
Police and firefighters have recovered 21 charred bodies and are looking for more under the smoldering debris, one witness told Reuters by telephone.
Police said the fire was started by an electric spark in one of the storerooms and spread quickly through the slum, where people were still sleeping.
In another development, President Iajuddin Ahmed has rejected appeals for mercy by six militants on death row, officials said yesterday.
They said the six included Sheikh Abdur Rahman of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen and Siddikul Islam Bangla Bhai of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, and their four deputies.
They were sentenced to death by the High Court last year for masterminding a series of bomb attacks which killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 in 2005. The outlawed groups were fighting to introduce Shariah law in Bangladesh, a mainly Muslim democracy.
Police said they have no further recourse for appeal.
Meanwhile, sales of luxury flats and cars have almost ground to a halt in Bangladesh since the new government launched a nationwide crackdown on corruption, company officials say.
The authorities started to tackle widespread graft in late January after a military-backed government came to power with a pledge to wage an all-out fight on graft and go after underworld-linked politicians. “The sales of luxury flats are almost nil. Only a few NRBs (non-resident Bangladeshis) are buying some flats,” said Abdul Awal, president of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh.
