The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mamunur Rashid

A hotel staff died and at least 50 other people, including several foreign boarders, have been injured in a series of gas pipeline explosions in a residential hotel at Naya Paltan in the city Sunday night.

A three-member probe committee headed by AIG Abdus Salam was formed yesterday to find out the cause of Sunday night's explosions at Hotel Orchard Plaza.

The deceased was identified as Ali Azam Ahmad, 45, security-in-charge of the hotel. He breathed his last at the City Hospital.

Source said at the time of the incident Ali Azam was at home at Shishir Das Lane. On information of the explosions he rushed to the hotel and tried to rescue a Sri Lankan national, AR Samantilak, ignoring the police cordon.

Samantilak, 43, was among those injured in the first explosion. He sustained 90 per cent burn injuries in his body and was under treatment in ICU in the City Hospital at Dhanmondi.

Another boarder Meer Hossain Miron, 40, a hotel cook, Jafar Iqbal alias Mohin, 30, and a private university student, Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury, 27, were admitted to the Burns Unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Other injured was rushed to Islami Bank Hospital and Rajarbagh Police Lines Hospital.

Police and witnesses said the first explosion occurred in a suite on the 7th floor of Hotel Orchid Plaza when Samantilak, a Sri Lankan bank official,

lighted a cigarette at about 9:30pm. He was reported to be fighting for life at the time of filing this report.

At around 11:30pm, two more explosions occurred in two rooms on the 8th

floor, smashing windowpanes and furniture. The "explosions" damaged parts of the interior of the hotel where some foreigners were staying overnight.

Two more loud explosions within two hours rocked the two-star hotel as police, explosive experts, firemen and journalists arrived, injuring at least another 50 people, Deputy Police Commissioner Mazharul Islam said.

At least 35 people including 10 police officers were admitted to different hospitals with burn injuries and wounds caused by flying glass. Others suffered minor injuries," he said.

Police and firemen rescued more than a dozen people, including a Singaporean trapped on the top floor of the 12-storey building.

Fire gutted several floors of the hotel, which had some internal walls knocked out by the force of the blasts.

It was not clear what caused the explosions, but police said leaking gas and electrical short circuit could be to blame.

"Explosive experts of the Rapid Action Battalion and Bomb Disposal Team of DMP have not found any explosives or any bomb sprinters from the scene. They suspect gas leakage from the air conditioners or in the pipeline and short circuit for the explosions," he said.

In the series of explosions the rest of the people, including several foreign boarders, members of the law-enforcing agencies and firefighters, were injured, the sources said.

An army official who was present on the spot said the incidents might have occurred due to leakage in gas line.

The gas also filled up two rooms on the 8th floor where explosions occurred at about 11:30am.

The fire-brigade personnel climbed the 7th and the 8th floors and rescued the trapped people, including an Indian and a Singaporean national.

This Correspondent saw shards of glass scattered on the road, and a long stretch blocked by the police and other security officials.

IGP Noor Mohammad at a briefing told journalists in the police headquarters yesterday afternoon that they had already formed a 3-member fact-finding committee, headed by the DMP additional police commissioner, on the explosions. The committee was asked to submit its report as early as possible.

"It's an accident, not a sabotage, as we didn't so far find any explosive substance in the hotel, which can prove that it's a sabotage.

The fact-finding committee has already started its job to find out whether the explosions were an act of sabotage," DMP Commissioner Nayeem Ahmed said.

The DMP chief said short circuit and gas-line leakage could be the reasons behind the explosions. Because, after the first explosion, they stopped the power supply to the hotel and when they reconnected electricity supply, two more explosions occurred in the residential hotel.

Firemen rescued Shrinivasan, an Indian national, from Room No. 930.

Mohammad Shahjalal, Director (administration) of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, said the explosions might have been triggered by faults in a gas pipeline. "It could also be gas cylinder explosions.