Kamal wants nat’l commission to probe Banani fire

Gono Forum president Kamal Hossain on Friday said a national commission should be formed to investigate the fire incident at 23-storey FR Tower building at Banani in Dhaka on Thursday that claimed at least 25 lives.
Talking to journalists during a visit to the spot in the morning, Kamal Hossain said there should not be an ordinary investigation into the fatal incident as it was related to the safety and security of the whole city. 
Kamal, an eminent lawyer, also said that the national commission should look into the related issues and find out flaws and weaknesses in existing laws so that the nation could get a comprehensive instruction to this end. 
Such a fire in such an area in the capital rang alarm bells for the city dweller and asked them to maintain building code, including proper building plans, and other rules, observed the leader. 
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, who also visited the spot in the afternoon, complained that the building code was not followed in any way in constructing the building and there was no arrangement of fire extinguisher and fire exit. 
Fakhrul wondered how they got permission to construct such a building.
Some of such fire incidents took place one after another in recent times and the government failed to take any effective measure to check recurrence of such fire incidents, he said while talking to reporters on the spot. 
He said the incidents took place due to negligence of the government and the authorities concerned. 
He became critical of the fire fighters for not having nets for rescuing those jumped down from the building and collecting water from different places.
Kamal Hossain lamented that a good number of people in the country had a tendency to escape laws that led to life-threatening incidents. 
Gono Forum leaders including Subrata Chowdhury, Mokabbir Khan and Rafiqul Islam Pathik accompanied Kamal Hossain.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on the day at a discussion in the city alleged that the incumbent government was playing the role of a ‘puppet government.’ 
He said the government was not elected by the people, rather it seized the power forcibly on instruction from its masters.
Fakhrul urged all to get united to free the party’s imprisoned chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Jatiyatabadi Muktadhara Dal organised the discussion at the National Press Club.
Presided over by its general secretary Sadek Ahmed Khan, the the discussion was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Kalyan Party chairman Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, BNP leaders Abdus Salam and Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net