SHANTY COLLAPSE

Rescue operation continued, allegedly at a sluggish pace, in two-storey tin roofed shanty, which caved in at Khilgaon Chowdhurypara Lake in the capital on Wednesday, with one more body recovered on early Thursday taking the death toll to 12.The police and district administration said that at least a minor boy was still missing.A case was filed with Ramna police station against Juba League leader Monir Chowdhury, who reportedly had built the illegal structure and leased out. He went into hiding immediately after the incident.Police or the fire service rescuers could not say immediately how many people were trapped under the debris.Fire service continued their search operation with divers and heavy equipments on Thursday.The officials, however, claimed that they did not hope for rescuing many more bodies as they had completed major parts of the rescue operation.Dhaka additional deputy commissioner (revenue) Abul Fazle Meer told New Age that they reduced the rescue operation to a limited scale and mostly focusing on removing the structure of the shanty from the lake.The police handed over bodies of the 12 deceased to their families and the bodies were buried in their home districts.‘The bodies have been handed over to families this morning,’ Fire Service and Civil Defence duty officer Ataur Rahman said.

The two-storey tin roofed shanty, built illegally on lake, collapsed and caved in the at Khilgaon Chowdhurypara Lake in the city Wednesday leaving at least 12 dead on spot and some others injured, police said.Rampura police sub-inspector Abdur Rashid filed a case against Monir on charge of culpable homicide by negligence for building the illegal structure and leasing out, said DMP Khilgaon zone assistant commissioner Nurul Alam.Local people identified shanty owner Monir as president of Ward-23 unit of Juba League, the ruling Awami League-backed youth organisation.They alleged that Monir and his family and relatives were running criminal activities in the area causing the locals to be irked and puzzled.The Juba League leader was running satellite cable business also, said the locals.Monir’s elder brother Mozibur Rahman Chowdhury is one of the councillor candidates of the ward.Mozibur brushed aside the allegation and claimed that the land was owned by Monir who had legal documents of the land in the name of his son Anoy Chowdhury.The incident doomed several families who were living in the tin-roofed two-story shanty.Sabuj Mia had lost four of his family and relatives under the debris from where the bodies were recovered later on.His pregnant wife Kalpana, parents Nizam and Rukhsana and another relative were among the people who sank under the filthy lake and could not swim ashore.
Apparel worker Nasrin Begum was sobbing looking at a floating shoe of her younger sister Runa.Runa, her brother Zakir and Nasrin’s husband husband Khokon were inside their room on ground floor during the collapse.  Khokon managed to swim ashore, but Runa and Zakir died under the debris.Truck driver Selim was in frantic search for his 12-year old son Ripon who went missing after the incident.Ripon’s family said that they were on the first floor of the tin-roofed two-story shanty, but went to ground floor to one of his friends before the incident and went missing.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh condemned the incident saying that it was a planned murder.While visiting the spot on Wednesday columnist Syed Abul Maksud alleged that the accident had taken place due to negligence of the administration.He pointed at the two city corporations of Dhaka, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha and district administration’s negligence for the loss of 12 lives.

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