Probe ordered into new Bangladesh factory fire
Country’s workplaces in appalling conditions
DHAKA: Bangladesh yesterday ordered an enquiry into a plastics factory fire which killed 13 workers, the latest in a series of accidents that have highlighted appalling conditions in the country’s workplaces. A five-man government team will investigate whether the Nasim Plastics factory-housed in a four-storey building in the Dhaka suburb of Mirpur-had a proper operating license, fire equipment and statutory safety features. “The probe team will file a report on their findings in three days. We want to find out what caused this accident,” said Syed Ahmed, head of the factory inspection department.
Police and fire officers believe Saturday’s blaze started when gas cylinders exploded in the boiler room, then raced through the fourstorey building in minutes. The walls of the factory collapsed due to the explosion. Three workers are critically ill in hospital with burns, police said. The 13 who died were burnt to death or suffocated after they were trapped on the upper floors, they said.
More than a dozen people suffered minor burns. Factory fires are common in impoverished Bangladesh, which is emerging as a new hub for labor-intensive industries. Many plants have poor safety standards and lack fire-fighting equipment. In November 2012, 111 garment workers were killed when a blaze devastated a nine-storey garment factory outside Dhaka. In April 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory complex collapsed, leaving 1,138 people dead and sparking a global outcry over the country’s workplace safety standards.
Western retailers such as H&M and Carrefour, which buy billions of dollars of clothing from Bangladesh every year, launched a campaign to improve safety standards in the country’s thousands of garment factories. Although inspectors hired by the retailers and the government have probed more than two thousand export-oriented factories, thousands more remain uninspected, authorities said. “We’re trying to ensure safety issues in all of the country’s factories including the ready-made garment factories,” said Ahmed, adding the government has this year more than doubled the number of factory inspectors.
Power restored to oppn office
Meanwhile, Bangladesh restored power to the office of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, an official said yesterday, nearly a day after it was cut in an apparent bid to force her to call off crippling protests. A spokesman for Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said power was restored some 20 hours after a technician of the state-run power agency cut the lines, sparking a hail of criticism.
Internet, satellite television and mobile phone network at the office, where Zia has been holed up since she launched a nationwide transport blockade early January, remained severed. “We got back power late Saturday night. But other lines including broadband internet, fax, cable televisions and mobile phone remained snapped,” BNP spokesman Shamsuddin Dider said.
The power line was cut after a government minister reportedly threatened to sever the office’s electrical supply and force Zia to starve to death if she did not call off the nationwide transport blockade. Zia has been confined to her office in Dhaka’s up-market Gulshan district since threatening to rally her supporters against the government of bitter rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on January 5, the first anniversary of a disputed general election.
Her confinement has coincided with the death of her youngest son in Malaysia. Tens of thousands of mourners turned out at his funeral Tuesday in a massive show of support for the embattled former premier. While holed up, Zia has called a nationwide blockade of roads, railways and waterways, triggering deadly unrest that has left at least 42 people dead and nearly 800 vehicles firebombed or damaged. She also called a 72-hour strike from yesterday, despite nationwide high-school examinations in which about 1.5 million students are taking part. Zia wants Hasina, her rival of nearly three decades, to call fresh polls after last year’s controversial polls, which opposition parties boycotted on the grounds they would be rigged.
The boycott meant most members of the 300-seat parliament were returned unopposed, handing Hasina another five years in power. Zia denies the BNP and its Islamist allies were responsible for firebombings and have demanded the release of opposition officials and leaders detained over the violence. Hasina has accused Zia of trying to trigger “anarchy” and ordered the security agencies to hunt down the protesters. The EU, the nation’s biggest export destination, has urged Hasina’s government and the opposition to hold talks to resolve the crisis. —AFP