Kalyanpur slum fire doused

After one hour of hectic effort fire fighters doused the fire that broke out at a Kalyanpur slum in Dhaka this morning.

Atiqul Alam, duty officer of Fire Service and Civil Defence, said two fire fighting units rushed to the spot and doused the fire around 11:00am.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Mamun, a dweller of the slum, alleged that somebody having enmity with the slum dwellers set the fire.

A woman looks blankly having lost all in a fire incident that broke out at Kalyanpur slum on Friday, January 22, 2016. Photo: STAR/ Palash Khan

The fire broke out at the slum, locally known as Pora Bosti [burnt slum] around 10:00am, sources at the said.

The origin of the blaze could not be known immediately.

The incident occurred a day after High Court issued an injunction staying the eviction of the slum dwellers for three months.

The fire broke out a day after the High Court halted a public works ministry eviction drive there on Thursday, January 21, 2016. Photo: STAR

The Housing and Building Research Institute (HBRI), under the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, conducted the drive at the slum sit on a land owned by it.

It conducted the drive ignoring previous HC orders and despite planning that it would not do so without rehabilitating the dwellers.