A fire inside the boundary wall of Dhaka Central Jail in the capital’s Bakshibazar area gutted a blanket factory located within the jail precincts yesterday.
The one-storey tin shed factory, manned by outside workers, is situated a few yards away from the jail compound adjacent to the office of the Inspector General (IG) of Prisons.
The inmates’ prison cells are surrounded by a high wall.
The fire which broke out around 4:20pm at Kajal Woolen Mills Limited caused panic among the inmates, but did not breach the prison buildings, jail sources said.
It took eight units of fire fighters to bring the blaze under control at 5:32pm.
Fire fighters were still trying to douse the fire completely, said Mohammad Ali, an official of the fire service’s control room at 8pm when this report was filed.
According to sources, Netrokona 5 constituency lawmaker, Waresat Hossain Belal, operated the blanket factory after leasing it from jail authorities.
The IG of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin visited the spot immediately after the incident. He told reporters that although the fire did not affect the jail building, authorities had shifted the inmates to a safer place as an extra precaution.
He said: “Factories should not be located near important establishments like the central jail.”
However, jailer Nesar Ahmed said inmates had not been relocated because the main boundary wall was high enough to prevent fire entering the compound.
He confirmed that some inmates had gathered in front of the buildings in panic.
Dhaka Central Jail, the largest jail in Bangladesh, is located in the old part of the city. The jail has been used to house criminals as well as political prisoners and war crimes convicts.
According to jail authorities, a number of VIP inmates and death row convicts, including convicted war criminals like Jamaat-e-Islami leader Kamaruzzaman, were inmates of the jail.
The Netrokona lawmaker told journalists that more than 150 workers were busy making blankets when the fire due to an electric short circuit broke out.
“We have been working to deliver an order of 2,214,000 blankets to the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry and 20,000 blankets for the jail authorities ahead of winter. In addition there were many blankets and raw materials stocked in the warehouse. Goods worth Tk21-22 crore were lost in the fire,” he said.
Md Maznu Mia, who was working in the cutting section of the factory told reporters that he saw sparks from a machine light the blankets on fire. The flames spread quickly, he said.
“We three workers were there and we tried to douse the flames with the help of some others but it spread too quickly. Then all of us got out in a hurry,” he said.
Ziadul Islam, acting director general of the fire service, said the electricity line was disconnected following the fire. The fire fighters fought hard to bring the fire under control.
“No one was burned but some workers fell ill because of the fumes,” he said.
Officer-in-Charge of Chawkbazar police station Azizul Haque said additional police officers had been deployed for security. Traffic came to a halt on the roads around the jail area.
