Rashedul Islam Mithu and Sonia Akhter had no idea what was waiting for them in Chawkbazar when they decided to accept an invitation to a party.
The couple—along with their two sons Shahir and Ramin—happily travelled to the party on Wednesday night.
The event was a get-together of friends and family members to celebrate a young child’s ear piercing, a tradition in Old Dhaka. The child in question was Ramin’s friend.
The family was on a rickshaw and had just reached Chawkbazar when the deadly explosion went off.
Ramin fell off the rickshaw, due to the shock wave that followed the explosion, and that probably saved his life. The rest of his family was not so lucky; they were hit by the fire that followed and were burned alive.
Ramin, who survived the accident, holds his younger brother Shahir in this family picture |CollectedMithu’s cousin Mohammad Hanif, who identified the charred bodies at the Dhaka Medical College morgue, gave these details to the Dhaka Tribune.
Ramin did not survive the incident unscathed; he suffered burns to his face, Hanif furthered.
The devastating fire, caused by the explosion of a CNG cylinder in a pick-up truck in Chawkbazar, Old Dhaka—at around 10:35pm on Wednesday—engulfed several buildings in the area within minutes; many of the buildings housed warehouses of plastic and chemical raw materials.
It took 37 firefigthers’ units more than 12 hours to douse the fire, which killed at least 67 people and injured more than 60.
