Three years of Churihatta tragedy

Today (February 20) is the horrific Churihatta tragedy. On this day in 2019, the entire country was shocked by the devastating terrible fire that broke out at Churihatta in the capital’s Chawkbazar, claiming 71 lives.

With the incident, the shadow of mourning spread all over the world. Today marks the third anniversary of the terrible fire.

Md Asif, son of Jummon who was killed in the devastating terrible fire, filed a case with Chawkbazar Police Station against 10-12 unidentified people including the two owners of Wahed Mansion.

After nearly three years of investigation into the case, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chawkbazar Police Station Abdul Qayyum, also the investigation officer of the case, submitted charge sheet to the court concerned against eight people, including the two owners of Wahed Mansion and owners and staffers of Pearl Trade International. The court fixed March 23 for accepting the charge sheet.

Among the eight charge-sheeted accused, four were arrested while four others surrendered before the court at different times.

All the accused are now on bail.

After the fire, the lesions of the four-storey Haji Wahed Mansion in Churihatta have been repaired. However, the relatives of the victims and the survivors of the fire in that building are still living a horrible life. The wounds in their hearts have not dried up even today.

After the fire broke out in Haji Wahed Mansion, it spread to different floors. The lighter gas on the floor, the tube of various chemicals including perfume spilled and spread to the nearby building. Fire service, police and other law enforcement agencies carried out the operation for 14 hours. 67 died on the spot that day. The death toll later rose to 71.