Why my country is turning into an inferno?

One after another fire disaster continues to erupt in Bangladesh in such shockingly mysterious manner, that now it has apparently turned almost impossible to distinguish these incidents between accidents and carefully planned sabotages. 

Just reflecting back to the last 96 hours or 4 days back, at least 3 critical fire disasters have rocked the nation. 

Last Tuesday on October 14, a fire broke out at a garment factory adjacent to a chemical warehouse in the capital's Mirpur area with 16 killed due to inhaling toxic gas. On October 16, another massive fire broke out at a factory located within the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ),raged for some 17 hours resulting in huge financial and job losses. And on Saturday afternoon, our international airport at Dhaka recorded the most perilous inferno in its history of existence. Much of the cargo village has turned into ashes with millions of dollars of goods vanished into thin air.

During the time of writing all flights have been suspended for an indefinite period, a number of arriving flights had been diverted to land in Chittagong Airport. As flames intensified, national and international carriers parked in nearby hangars were moved to safer locations. As many as 25 fire fighters, mostly ANSAR support staff were immediately taken to Combined Military Hospital and Kurmitola General Hospital for treatment.

What’s next, or which is the next strategic target in my country to come under blaze?

Given my years of experience writing on fire accidents in a broader capacity in Bangladesh – long-overdue safety issues, common causes, overcrowding with complex exit points and limited monitoring of compliance issues were the main topics. However, now the definitions and dynamics behind the recent fire disasters have changed since they are linked with the complex political reality of today’s Bangladesh, strictly a personal remark. 

Note my points, 3 fire calamities have struck within an abnormally short time during a very critical time as political tensions are running high. It is practically difficult to believe that the country’s safety negligence of 2 garment factories and an international airport have suddenly collapsed.

Just carefully look into the timing of the fire to break out at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. 

HSIA in Dhaka and Osmani International Airport (OIA) in Sylhet scored unprecedented ratings in the latest security assessment conducted by the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport. 

HSIA, achieved an overall assessment score of 93 percent and 100 percent in the Additional Measures Assessment (Cargo) while Sylhet’s OIA scored 94 percent overall and 100 percent for Additional Measures (Cargo). And within less than a week HSIA’s cargo village goes up in flame. An international standard textile factory located within the EPZ catches an unprecedented scale of fire. Allow the fire disasters to continue for another week, and my country will unquestionably earn a Black Belt on attracting fire wherever. 

It is not a prediction, but a disturbing forecast based on wary developments that our Key Point Installations have come under serious safety and security threats. For the next disaster to take place you don’t have to wait for another day, but it may take place in the next hour.

As it takes two to tango, it also takes two to make an accident, with or without a plan. Given the country’s precarious state of security, safety issues will definitely suffer but in case a sinister pro-active force is involved in orchestrating fire or whatever disasters in the run-up months to the next general elections, consequences will be undeniably disastrous. 

Writings are all clear on the wall, since all 3 disasters, meaning their safety measures had to fail immediately prior and after the signing of July Charter. 

The fear, however, this writer regularly commutes via Dhaka’s metro-rail, and it will not be surprising if a massive disruption cripples Dhaka’s metro, forcing nearly half a million commuters travelling by roads triggering a citywide traffic jam. An unexpected fire erupting at a power manufacturing or distributing centre may well keep Dhaka in the dark for hours. A massive explosion may well blow up one of our army’s ordnance factories. And what’s next?

To cut short,following HSIA’s inferno,all our Key Point Installations have turned into marked targets.

But where are these disasters leading us, these almost regular accidents are drawing bad press internationally. All such deadly happenings are collectively branding Bangladesh as an unsafe and insecure country for international passengers, foreign investors to foreign governments. This has been further intensified with Indian media outlets to have launched an all-out effort to vilify Bangladesh in the global digital platform. Here the scale of disaster matters little, but wider circulation and turning it into viral newsmatters the most, so to shape a public opinion based on disinformation campaigns.

The bottom-line: The scale of disruption and disasters will unquestionably shoot-up at an alarming level turning into regular events. Invisible agents and insiders will continue to compromise national safety and security issues. There will be fresh attempts from all avenues to destabilize the government despite its proven failures. Acts of disruptive political espionage, sabotage and violent agitations would likely overwhelm the country’s political landscape. And these so-called accidents are only fueling whatever worst is designed to manifest - delay or stop from holding the upcoming general elections, if necessary, create a countrywide inferno.

The question at the end of the day is – who is suffering and who is gaining from these fire and whatever disasters? 

Based on a strong conviction, these 3 aforementioned disasters are not mere accidents. Apart from genuine future accidents, if they truly happen, many of the upcoming disasters will be jointly planned and executed by well-known internal and external factors. 

To finish with, Saturday afternoon’s HSIA fire incident suddenly reminded of that famous movie Towering Inferno’s celebrated quoteby Steve McQueen, saying - “When there's a fire, I outrank everybody here”.

Here, in today’s Bangladesh there is a visible inferno fomenting before my eyes. I need to outrank everybody here.