Train catches fire and at least five people die in Dhaka, Bangladesh
Five people died after a train caught fire in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Friday evening (5), local time. Authorities believe the fire was caused by criminals with the aim of frightening voters ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday (7).
Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer Mahid Uddin told AP that the fire was “clearly an act of sabotage.” He did not name any political party or group as suspects but said authorities were investigating the case.
Firefighters at the scene said the fire quickly spread to four passenger cars on the train. Seven fire brigade units were on site to extinguish the flames.
Last month, police and the government blamed the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for another train fire that killed four people. The group denied involvement in the incident.
Officially, at least three people have been killed in political clashes since the campaign officially began on December 18.
Sunday's elections come against an increasingly polarized backdrop in Bangladeshi politics. On one side is Sheikh Hasina, the current prime minister, and on the other is Khaleda Zia, former prime minister and opposition leader who is now under house arrest.
Critics accuse Hasina's government of stifling the opposition through repressive security measures, and Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) says more than 20,000 opponents have been arrested. However, the prime minister's government denies that the arrests were made out of political bias and claims that the number of those detained is much lower.
Both the BNP and other opposition groups plan to boycott Sunday's vote, claiming the election under Hasina will be neither free nor fair. They are demanding that the prime minister resign and leave the vote to a neutral provisional government, but the current government claims that the country's constitution does not support such a measure.
According to AP, the deputy spokesperson for the UN SecretaryGeneral, Florencia Soto Nino, said on Wednesday (3) in New York: “We are following the process closely and hope that all elections will take place in a transparent and organized manner.”