Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
24 December 2023 | 15:19 CAT

Crime Scene Unit members inspect the passenger train that was set on fire during a countrywide strike called by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, ahead of the general election, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Unidentified persons set on fire a passenger train in the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday, killing at least four people, including a woman and her minor son, amidst the political unrest over the January 7 elections.

The attack coincided with the nationwide stoppage called by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday as part of its ongoing campaign to boycott the polls and launch a formal protest against the Election Commission’s polls schedule.

The arson attack on the train was the fifth in the past month but the deadliest so far in terms of casualties.

At least four persons, including a woman and her child, have died after the train was set on fire amid a hartal called by the BNP.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League has emerged as the prime contender in the absence of ailing ex-premier Khaleda Zia’s BNP, which has boycotted the January 7 polls since its demands for a no-party caretaker government to organise the voting were not met.

Awami League is contesting the polls against its technical Opposition in Parliament Jatiya Party and independent candidates, including the rebel contenders who fielded their candidature after failing to secure the party nomination.

Meanwhile, one passenger was killed last week and dozens wounded as saboteurs uprooted railway tracks on the same train on the same route the previous week when seven carriages derailed in Gazipur on the outskirts of the capital.

Dozens of trucks, buses and private cars were torched since late October while the violence killed at least six people.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with Mufti Yusuf Moosagie and Al Amin Rahman, Barrister at Law (U.K) Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.