Two held over Bangladesh blaze

DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh said yesterday they had arrested the owners of an office tower here that caught fire earlier this week, killing 26 people and renewing the country’s debate over lax safety standards.

The latest deadly blaze to hit here tore through the 22-storey FR Tower on Thursday, leaving some of the hundreds trapped inside screaming for help as horrified onlookers massed outside.

Police said they had detained two men, S.M.H.I. Faruque and Tasvir Ul Islam — who is district leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — in the capital, after filing charges against them for criminal negligence.

“We arrested Faruque just after midnight. He is the 45 per cent owner of the building. He owns the land on which the building was constructed,” Deputy Commissioner Mashiur Rahman said.

Senior police official Shahjahan Saju said Islam, who contested the parliamentary election in December and lost, was arrested at 11pm (1am Malaysian time) on Saturday over allegations he owns part of the building, which the authorities have said was extended illegally and lacked adequate fire safety measures.

Police said they were looking for the owner of the construction firm which built the tower in the 1990s.

Some of those stuck inside the burning building, in the upmarket Banani commercial district, made it to safety by sliding down cables on the side of the building, but others took their chances and jumped in a bid to escape the smoke and heat.

Six people leaped to their deaths.

Firefighters backed by military specialists — some in helicopters — tackled the flames, lowering ropes to help people escape, while rescuers on long ladders smashed through windows.

The arrests came as a senior minister called the fire an act of murder amid growing public clamour for better building safety standards.

“Definitely this is murder. It is not an accident... Nobody will escape the law,” Housing and Public Works Minister Rezaul Karim said on Friday.