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Nat'l probe mocks Bashundhara's mall fire claim

Staff Correspondent
Bashundhara Group's filing of a general diary levelling a ludicrous accusation of arson against the editors of the dailies, Prothom Alo and Samakal, seems like a delirious ranting in light of the government probe committee's report on the matter.
But without realising the utter absurdity of it, the group yesterday went on to file a defamation suit against the Prothom Alo editor, a reporter, and an industrialist, the court however showed its sagacity by throwing out the case following a hearing.
The government probe committee formed to investigate the incident of fire at Bashundhara shopping mall could not confirm whether it was an incident of arson. The committee however brought allegations against the Bashundhara authorities of not cooperating with the investigation, and of mysterious negligence in duty by on-duty security guards.
Fire broke out in Bashundhara shopping mall on March 13, which damaged the floors 13 to 17 of the mall. The government formed a probe committee headed by the then joint secretary (police) Iqbal Khan Chowdhury to investigate the incident The two other members of the committee were Director of the Fire Service and Civil Defence Maj MM Motiur Rahman, and Deputy Police Commissioner (Tejgaon) Mahbubur Rahman.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) started its own investigation since the probe committee had submitted its report. CID officials said the department is currently investigating the matter.
Sources said in order to ascertain whether the incident was an arson or not the committee investigated several matters. It was mentioned in the probe report that examining the register book it was found that security guard Abu Taher was on duty on the 18th floor. His scheduled duty was from 6:00am to 2:00pm. But he was called downstairs for lift services. He stayed downstairs for three hours.
The probe report said the fire broke out between 12:45pm and 1:15pm. But according to the occurrence book of the fire service, the incident was reported to the fire department at 1:45pm. The probe committee termed the delay in informing about the fire as mysterious.
The. probe report said although the control room situated in the building was supposed maintain a record of all daily fire extinguishing activities, it did not contain any information about the primary fire alarm of that day.
Mentioning the statements of fire fighters and other persons concerned, the report said the fire fighters did not get water from the building's hydrants for some time even after their arrival, which was unusual.
The report even observed that not training adequately the fireworkers, and not hiring the adequate number of manpower despite having the availability of modern fire fighting equipment could have been a part of a long term plotting.
The probe body believed all the floors of the building were locked, but the failure to provide keys to the fire fighters even after their arrival was also suspicious.
The report said considering that all the floors were locked and the security system was not strengthened, it is questionable whether the incident of fire was an act of arson.
Although the affected floors were the corporate tower of Bashundhara shopping mall, the mall authorities said those were not insured.
The probe committee held a press briefing on March 23, following the fire. It said at the briefing that it could not find out the reasons for the fire in the country's largest shopping mall due to non-cooperation of the Bashundhara authorities and due to a lack of necessary testing facilities. That is why the committee recommended formation of a new committee for investigating the incident of fire.
The probe committee's primary findings termed the incident as suspicious.
The then state minister for homeTanjim Ahmed SohelTaj told reporters. ”ln such a building there are modern equipment to detect and extinguish fire, there is also a fire alarm system, everything is recorded there. But when our investigation committee asked for the records they were not provided with it."
The former state minister also said "For the sake of dispelling all doubts in the public, if we feel it necessary, we will definitely reinvestigate the matter."