Massive fire engulfs slum in Bangladesh, leaves thousands homeless
Dhaka: An massive fire ripped through one of Bangladesh's largest slums here on Wednesday, leaving hundreds of shanties gutted and thousands of people homeless, according to media reports.
The fire broke out on Wednesday morning at the Shialbari Jhilpar Slum in Mirpur's Rupnagar residential area where some 20,000 people lived in around 2,000 shanties.
Fire Service and Civil Defence Director (Operations) Zillur Rahman told reporters that no casualty was reported immediately.
"The cause of the fire will be known after investigation. We will form a four-member probe team and it will be asked to submit its report within 10 days," Rahman was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune.
He said the narrow lanes around the slum and shortage of water had caused difficulty for about 20 fire fighting units in putting out the blaze.
Hundreds of low-income residents of the slum lost their belongings and shelters as the fire burnt them to ashes, Rahman said.
Local lawmaker Elias Uddin Mollah told reporters that some 20,000 people lived in 2,000 shanties in the Shialbari Jhilpar Slum.
Mollah, who was at the scene of the blaze, said the residents affected by the fire will temporarily be lodged in a school nearby.
"No one will be living under the open sky. We will stand by them until their homes become habitable. We will bear all the expenses relating to their food, shelter and clothing," he told bdnews24.com.
"The area shelters hundreds of thousands of poor residents," Officer-in-Charge of Rupnagar Police Station Abul Kalam Azad told The Daily Star newspaper.
According to slum dwellers and fire officials, illegal gas and electricity connections in the slum caused the fire.
There was no natural source of water like pond or canal in the area which resulted in delay in dousing the blaze, an official said.
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Four held for Rs 6.79 cr loot at Mumbai jewellery shop; thermal drones used to scan forest hideouts
Mumbai (PTI): Four persons were arrested after an intense 48-day manhunt deep inside the forests of Rajasthan for allegedly stealing jewellery worth Rs 6.79 crore from a shop in north Mumbai, a police official said on Monday.
The theft of gold, silver and diamonds from the safe of complainant Sanket Porwal's shop in IC Colony in Borival West took place in January, the MHB police station official said.
"Our probe found that shop employees Prabhu Singh and Narayan Singh allegedly used a duplicate key to unlock the safe and flee with the valuables. Technical analysis traced them to Rajasthan, following which a team went there. The trail eventually led investigators to the dense forest regions of Rajsamand district in the western state," he said.
The accused avoided staying in villages and continued to move deeper into the forest to avoid arrest, the official said. They also kept moving from Rajsamand to Chittorgarh, Sardargarh and Pali districts, he added.
"For 48 days, police officers camped in the jungles, relying on human intelligence and advanced surveillance techniques. Thermal drones were used to scan forest zones where the accused were suspected to be hiding. Further probe revealed the involvement of others identified as Ganpat Singh, Kishan Singh and Mod Singh," he said.
One key accused was traced to a temple located deep inside a forest near Muwariya village in Rajsamand district, while two others were picked up from Kuwariya village based on a tip off, the official added.
Three kilograms of gold worth Rs 4.5 crore as well as five kilograms of silver worth Rs 15 lakh have been seized, and efforts are on to recover the remaining loot, he said.
