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Published : 16 Apr 2025, 01:38 AM
A straw shed at the ancestral home of Saddam Hussain, president of the now-banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), has been burnt down in Panchagarh’s Atwari Upazila.
No casualties were reported in the incident.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight on Tuesday at South Satkhamar in Ward 8 of Boda Municipality, police said.
“At around 1am, someone set fire to our straw shed,” said Saddam’s mother Anwara Begum.
“Neighbours noticed the fire and began shouting. Locals rushed to help, and later, personnel from the army and Fire Service managed to bring the flames under control.”
She said the shed contained straw from nearly 1.34 hectares of land.
“My husband has been bedridden for three years due to illness. We had just renovated a few rooms in the burnt-down house to start living there again after the fire on Aug 5 last year. The straw shed was a little away from the main house. Now, we’re living in fear,” she said.
She demanded a proper investigation and punishment for those responsible.
The Fire Service said two units from the Boda station responded to the scene and took nearly an hour to douse the blaze.
The tin-roofed structure measured 30 feet by 10 feet and stored straw and firewood.
The cause of the fire could not be confirmed immediately.
Saddam’s elder brother Prince, who gave a single name, said: “Someone set fire to the straw shed and fled. We rushed out with our parents and my children to save ourselves and saw the shed in flames."
Saddam’s uncle Hasnat, a local organiser of the National Citizen Party (NCP) who also gave a single name, said: “We are nine brothers, all living together. Saddam’s father is a freedom fighter and a retired schoolteacher. The shed that was burnt belongs to him. Such persecution of a family in a free country is unacceptable.”
Boda Fire Service warehouse inspector Raihan Islam estimated the damage at around Tk 100,000.
Atwari Police Station chief Rafiqul Islam said officers visited the scene and the family has filed a police complaint.
“We’re investigating the incident,” he said.
On Aug 5, 2024, amid a massive anti-government uprising that led to the fall of the Awami League, angry protesters torched Saddam’s family home.
The entire house was destroyed, and the family later repaired three rooms to resume living there.
