NCP holds torch procession in Dhaka protesting fire at MP Nusrat's home

Leaders and activists of the National Citizen Party (NCP) held a torch procession at Banglamotor in the capital in protest at the fire at the village home of MP Nusrat Tabassum Jyoti in Kushtia.

The protest procession started in front of the NCP's central office at around 7:45 pm on Thursday (12 November). NCP member secretary Akhtar Hossain and other top central leaders of the party were present in the torch procession.

Nusrat Tabassum Jyoti is a member of the NCP's political council and an MP from a reserved women's seat. On Wednesday night, a fire broke out at her village home in Baguan village of Mathurapur union under Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed told parliament that the fire broke out at around 12:20 am in a tin-shed semi-pucca house, 20 metres from which the MP's parents live in a three-storey building. No one lived in the tin-shed house; it contained some furniture and two goats.

The family has alleged that miscreants set the house on fire by throwing a petrol bomb. In parliament, opposition chief whip Nahid Islam claimed that four petrol bombs were thrown at Nusrat's home to set it ablaze and that livestock kept in the house were burned to death.

The home minister, on the other hand, told parliament that after speaking with local residents and law enforcement and reviewing evidence at the scene, no sound of a petrol bomb explosion or mark on the walls was found initially, and no witness gave such information either. As the house was old and its electrical wiring weak, the fire may have been caused by a short circuit, he said.

The home minister said a Fire Service team from a nearby station brought the fire under control as soon as the news was received, and senior police and BGB officials visited the scene. A joint investigation committee comprising the BGB, Fire Service, police and civil administration has been ordered to be formed to find the real cause of the fire.

The torch procession in Dhaka was held while that joint investigation committee had begun its work. Law enforcement and the administration say the committee has started examining the incident.

In parliament, Nahid Islam also questioned the country's overall law and order situation and the government's ability to provide security. He said that from MPs to the leadership of the July mass uprising and activists of the anti-fascist movement, everyone is suffering extreme insecurity, and if the government cannot provide security it should say so clearly.

The home minister told parliament that the real cause of the fire can only be confirmed once the full investigation ends. The debate over whether the Kushtia fire was a petrol bomb attack or an electrical short circuit therefore now depends on the joint investigation committee's report.