Mosque Blast Titas finds more leakage, struggles to trace gas lines

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has been continuing with their excavation in Paschim Talla area in Narayanganj and found another leakage in the gas supply pipeline on Tuesday.

It was the third leakage that Titas detected following two days of excavation beginning on Monday.

Meanwhile, 50-year-old Hannan passed away on the evening in the intensive care unit of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, taking the death toll to 28.

Hannan was secretary of Baitus Salat Jame Masjid of Paschim Talla under Fatullah in Narayanganj.

Eight more victims are now undergoing treatments in ICU of the hospital in critical conditions, said Partha Sankar Pal, residential surgeon of the hospital.

A doctor of the hospital said that the death toll could rise.

The High Court bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam will pass its decision today of petition filed by the lawyer Mar-e-um Khondaker to pay Tk 50 lakh each as compensation to all the victims who died and were injured after the explosion.

Hearing the petition on Tuesday, the court observed that there was negligence on the part of Titas or Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK).

Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company has suspended eight of their officials and staff members on Monday amid allegations of mismanagement in gas supply line maintenance that led to the leakages and the subsequent devastating blast on Friday.

Titas had started excavation at the Paschim Talla mosque area since Monday and initially found two leakages at the East and North ends, said officials. The excavation resumed on Tuesday and another leakage was detected, said officials.

The latest leakage was found in the same supply pipeline where two leakages were found on Monday.

Titas Narayanganj deputy general manager Mofijul Islam said that they were struggling to locate the entire network of gas supply pipelines in and around the mosque.

He said that they were yet to find out the end point of the gas line on the east side of the mosque.

Titas-formed probe committee, led by its general manager Abdul Wahad, visited the blast area on Tuesday.  

Abdul Wahad told reporters that they were excavating to find out where the supply line ended.

Wahad told New Age that they found multiple lines connected to the main gas supply line and those seem to lead to different directions.

He said that they were yet to find the main line in front of the mosque, so they could not asses the entire scenario.

A Titas official, however, said that they were struggling to trace out many of connecting lines as there was no digital mapping of the network and many illegal lines were connected to the main supply lines.

Mofijul also told New Age that their prime task now was to trace out supply line and leakages in and around the mosque.

‘We will also take action if we find illegal connections,’ he added.

The district administration-formed probe committee has been conducting public hearing for two days since Monday.

The committee chief additional district magistrate Khadija Tahera said that they took statements of over forty people in two days.

The locals are blaming negligence of Titas authority citing the demand for bribe, for which the leakages were left unattended.

The mosque management committee complained that the Titas officials claimed Tk 50,000 as bribe when they approached them.

Non-payment of the amount finally led to the blast, locals complained to the probe team.

Naraynaganj additional police superintendent Mehedi Imran Siddique visited the spot on the afternoon and told reporters that their primary investigation found that the mosque committee did not take permission from the concerned authorities before construction.

He assured families of the victims that the responsible persons will face charges.  

Total 37 victims were brought in to Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery after the blast had ripped through Baitus Salat Jame Masjid of Paschim Talla under Fatullah in Narayanganj Friday evening.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net