C T Online Desk: The reason behind the terrible Bangabazar inferno is still shrouded in mystery even after the passage of nearly three weeks.
Sources said members of a department are looking into the matter to know whether the fire incident was sabotage or not.
They are taking the help from the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) to verify the conversation of mobile phone calls in Bangabazar market area of the capital before and after the incident.
The suspicious conversation is being scrutinised, they said.
Earlier, the probe committee of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) unearthed the reason either from burning cigarette butt or mosquito coil.
In its findings, the DSCC probe body has also ruled out any possibility of the fire outbreak from the electric short circuit.
After the fire incident, many affected businessmen said they were suspecting that somebody might set the markets on the fire in a pre-planned manner.
After the New Super Market fire, even Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised eyebrows over the repeated fire incidents at different markets.
However, the sources have said the department entrusted to look into the reasons behind the fire incident will soon come to a conclusion over the reason of the Bangabazar fire.
The probe committee formed by the Fire Service and Civil Defence (FSCD) is yet to complete its investigation though the timeframe fixed for submission was over.
Sources in the FSCD said the electric short circuit or burning cigarette might be the reason for the outbreak of the fire.
Although the probe body is primarily suspecting the electric short circuit or burning cigarette butts, it is yet to come to an end.
Wishing anonymity, an FSCD official said, “We can’t match our findings with a point. So, in depth investigation is now being carried out.”
When contacted, Lt Col Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director (operation and maintenance) of the FSCD, told the Daily Sun that they will be able to place their findings soon.
The officer has declined to reveal what they so far gathered on the fire.
On April 4, an inferno ripped through either Bangabazar Shopping Complex or Adarsha Market burning about 5,000 shops of the markets and some others into ashes.
On April 10, the eight-member investigation committee of the DSCC stated that they were primarily suspecting that burning cigarette or mosquito coil on the fourth floor of the Adarsha Market caused the massive fire.
The committee has prepared its initial findings after talking to security guards, traders, shop owners and employees of the market and witnesses.
It said the fire broke out in an embroidery factory on the second floor of Adarsha Market.
