The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Monday demanded a neutral commission to probe into the fire at the BM Container Depot in Chattogram’s Sitakunda that claimed the lives of 41 people and left over 200 injured.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir made the demand at a press conference at the party chairperson’s political office at Gulshan in Dhaka.

‘I think an independent commission should be formed immediately to probe into the incident. We need to find out who is responsible for this,’ Fakhrul said.

‘What a horror! The human body cannot be found, it has been torn apart, it has been completely burnt and it is not recognisable. They did not realise that there could be an explosion. As a result of this, an incident like this is taking place. We demand compensation for families of the victims and proper treatment for the injured,’ the BNP leader said.

He also demanded the introduction of a ‘surveillance system’ for all container depots in the country.

‘I have not seen any investigation report of any incident in the past. When we say neutral, we mean that the party is neutral and has nothing to do with the government, some experts are experts, who understand the issues,’ he said.

He said that this government took no responsibility for the welfare of people, for the safety and security of people, for keeping people well.

Since this government is not an elected government it has no accountability, he said.

Asked about the impact of the incident in the RMG sector, Fakhrul said that it would of course have a negative impact.

‘There are some talks already over this. After the fire incident at Tazrin Fashion and the collapse of Rana Plaza the kind of negative talks we saw we had just overcome this due to interest of garment owners and cooperation of foreign buyers,’ he said.

‘But safety issue has not made that kind of progress yet. The kinds of fire that are happening we do not have the necessary manpower and equipment to control them,’ he said, adding that the Awami League has now become a party of exploiters.

‘Now they have no chance to speak for the exploited. Because they have become exploiters now, exploiting Bangladesh. Now they are looting, indulging in corruption and money-laundering, destroying all human hopes and aspirations,’ he said.

‘National mourning should have been declared after this incident. If it was in any civilised country, it would have done it. The United States declared national mourning for the children who had been killed recently,’ he said.

Criticising the government’s decision of raising gas prices, Fakhrul said that the rise in gas prices was due to government corruption.

‘Why is the raising of the gas price? The rise in gas prices is entirely due to their corruption, he said, also blaming the government’s management failure and incompetence.

Demanding the withdrawal of the decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission to increase the price of gas, the BNP secretary general said, ‘Every utility service has water, gas, electricity prices. We are appealing to keep the price within the tolerable limit.’

Fakhrul feared that the price of all products would go up as a result of the increase in gas price.

‘As a result of the increase in gas price, the price of every product produced in the industry will go up again,’ he added.