Miscreants set fire to train in Dhaka, 4 dead

Dhaka, Dec 19: Amid reports of increasing violence ahead of the January 2024 general elections in Bangladesh, unidentified miscreants on Tuesday set fire to three coaches of a train in Dhaka, killing four people.

The incident took place at around 5 a.m. amid a countrywide strike called by the country's largest opposition party to press its demand for the government to resign ahead of the crucial polls slated to be held on January 7, 2024, reports Xinhua news agency.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan told journalists that three firefighting units rushed to the scene and recovered the bodies from one of the three coaches.

Several people were also injured while scrambling out of the train.

The country's main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have called for the dawn-to-dusk strike on Tuesday.

The opposition movement has reportedly led to vandalism of vehicles and arson attacks, with deadly clashes between police and workers in Dhaka and elsewhere in the South Asian country almost every day since late October.

On December 13, one person was killed when seven compartments of a train were derailed on an overpass in Gazipur on the outskirts of Dhaka.

The train derailed after a section of the railway line in Gazipur was allegedly severed by saboteurs due to the ongoing opposition movement.

As a result of the continued violence, army personnel will be deployed across Bangladesh to assist the civil administration in ensuring security ahead of the elections.

Since late October, the country's opposition parties have observed blockades in the 11th phase to mount pressure on the ruling Bangladesh Awami League (AL) party government to quit power and hold the next election under a non-partisan administration.

The opposition movement has reportedly led to vandalism of vehicles and arson attacks, with deadly clashes between police and workers in Dhaka and elsewhere in the South Asian country almost every day since late October.