Mosque blast: 8 suspended employees of Titas arrested

Members of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) have arrested eight suspended employees of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited in connection with explosion at Narayanganj mosque on September 4 that claimed 32 lives so far.

Maenul Hasan, Deputy Inspector General of CID, disclosed this at a press conference held at CID’s Narayanganj office around 12pm on Saturday.

The arrestees are: Fatullah Zonal office manager Sirajul Islam, 42, Deputy manager, Mahmudur Rahman Rabbi, 34, assistant engineer SM Hasan Shahriar, 32, assistant engineer Manik Mia, 33, senior supervisor Munibur Rahman Chowdhury, 56, senior development worker Ayub Ali, 58, assistant Hanif Mia, 48, and Ismail Pradhan, 49.  

The explosion happened at Pashchim Talla Baitus Salat Mosque around 8:45pm after Esha prayers on September 4.

Fire officials said the explosion was caused due to an accumulation of leaked gas from an underground Titas Gas pipeline that somehow came in contact with an electric spark.

The Titas authority suspended the eight employees for negligence on September 8.