On Sunday (March 12) around 4:30 pm, District Magistrate Abu Sufian, head of the Investigation Committee formed by the District Administration submitted a report to District Commissioner Mohammad Shahin Imran regarding the fire in Balukhali, where the Committee stated that the fire in Balukhali caml was planned and was an act of sabotage.
After submitting report, Abu Sufian, head of the seven member Investigation Committee said at a press briefing, “Following the fire incident in Balukhali camp, the district administration formed a seven member investigation committee. During investigation we took the testimony of 75 witnesses. In the mean time we thoroughly verified the news published in different medias. Considering every thing, it is clear that the fire was planned and [an act of] sabotage. Camps were deliberately set fire with the aim of dominance. However, no concrete evidence was found on who set fire.”
In order to prevent this type of incident from happening in the future, the report made 12 recommendations, including filing cases on fire, regular law enforcement operations, and increasing intelligence activities.
Other recommendations include making roads in each block of Rohingya camps suitable for law enforcement and fire service vehicles, building water troughs along block roads, using different materials instead of plastic tent in shelters; which is made of relatively less flammable materials, formation of separate fire service unit for the camp, refraining from marketing inside the camp and refraining from outlet of flammable materials at places other than the sides of major roads, setting up layout at the entrance of the camp in case of densely populated and many vehicular traffic, creating training and awareness for Rohingyas to participate in fire fighting, installation of wireless towers and 360 degree CCTV cameras in camp blocks and security fences to prevent escape from one camp to another.
