Bangladesh

Couple die after cooking gas cylinder explosion at Tongi home; daughter critical

The blast happened early on Wednesday in a rented house at Cherag Ali. Police say gas leaked from a cylinder pipe and built up before it ignited; the couple's 16-year-old daughter is being treated in intensive care.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 22 Oct 2026, 16:17Updated: 22 Oct 2026, 16:17

An LP gas cylinder of the type widely used for cooking in Bangladeshi homes, photographed in 2016. File photo. Hatorininja / Wikimedia Commons

A husband and wife died after an explosion caused by a leaking cooking gas cylinder at their rented home in Tongi, Gazipur, and their teenage daughter is being treated in hospital in Dhaka, police and hospital officials said.

The couple were Lal Chan Mia, 60, and his wife Nasima, 50, both garment workers, according to The Daily Star. Their 16-year-old daughter is in intensive care at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in the capital.

The explosion happened at about 6:00am on Wednesday at the family's rented house in the Mudafa area of Cherag Ali, under Tongi West police station. According to the officer-in-charge of the police station, Md Arifur Rahman, gas leaked from a pipe attached to a cooking cylinder and collected inside the house before it ignited. Neighbours rescued the three and took them to the burn institute, where they arrived at about 7:30am, The Daily Star reported.

The parents died at the institute at about 8pm on Wednesday. The officer-in-charge confirmed the deaths on Thursday at about 12:30pm and said the blast was caused by the cylinder leak, Dhaka Tribune reported. Dhaka Tribune said the family lived in a house owned by Fakhrul Hasan near Master Bari in Ward 52 of Mudafa, and that the bodies were handed to relatives after legal formalities were completed.

Dr Sultan Mahmud Sikder, a resident surgeon at the burn institute, said all three patients were in critical condition when they were admitted, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Cooking gas cylinders are used in millions of Bangladeshi homes, especially where piped gas is not available, and they are connected to stoves with a rubber hose and a regulator. A leak in a closed room can allow gas to build up, and a spark can then set it off. Fatal cylinder explosions have been reported in Gazipur, Dhaka and other districts in recent years, often in densely built neighbourhoods where homes and kitchens are close together.

Several details of Wednesday's incident are still not public. Police have said the gas leaked from a cylinder pipe, but they have not said what ignited it, whether the cylinder, the regulator or the hose was at fault, or whether any technical inspection will be carried out. No finding has been announced on whether the cylinder was bought from a licensed dealer or whether it was in good condition. Police have also not said whether anyone will face questions over the leak, and no case details were given.

The family's rented home was in one of the busiest parts of Tongi, a township in Gazipur just north of Dhaka where many garment workers live in rented rooms. Both parents worked in the garment industry, The Daily Star said, a detail that underlines how common such shared, tightly packed housing is in the area.

What happens next centres on the daughter, who remains in the hospital's intensive care unit, and on the police inquiry into the leak. Officers have so far described the case as an accident caused by a leaking cylinder pipe, and no further announcement has been made about the investigation.

Cylinder safety is a recurring issue in Bangladesh because so many households depend on LPG. Officials and safety campaigners have long advised families to check hoses and regulators for cracks, to keep kitchens ventilated, and to turn off the cylinder valve when the stove is not in use, though such guidance is not always followed and enforcement is limited.

For the family in Tongi, the practical questions are now the medical care of the surviving daughter and the formal end of the police process. For the wider public, the case is a reminder of how quickly a small leak in an ordinary kitchen can turn fatal.

Sources & further reading

Couple die after gas cylinder explosion in Tongi - Dhaka Tribune Couple dies after gas cylinder explosion in Gazipur - The Daily Star

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NEXT STORY Politics

Seven Qawmi-based Islamic parties form new alliance under Hefazat mediation

The platform, named 'Samamana Islami Dal', was announced after a meeting at a Khilgaon madrasa. Hefazat-e-Islam says parties now in other alliances have agreed to leave them, and the seven will meet again on 5 December.

ScrollBeat Desk22 Oct 2026, 16:46Open this article

File photo: Hefazat-e-Islam ameer Allama Shah Muhibbullah Babunagari at the 86th International Islamic Conference of Al-Jamia Al-Islamia Patiya in November 2025. The photo is from that conference, not from the 22 October 2026 meeting in Dhaka. Photo: Owais Al Qarni / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Owais Al Qarni / Wikimedia Commons

Seven Qawmi-based Islamic parties announced a new political platform on Thursday, after a morning meeting at the Makhzanul Ulum Madrasa in Dhaka's Khilgaon, with Hefazat-e-Islam acting as the go-between in months of talks.

The platform is called 'Samamana Islami Dal', a name used before by like-minded Islamic parties. Hefazat-e-Islam Secretary General Maulana Sajidur Rahman told reporters after the meeting that the seven parties had agreed to work together, and that members currently inside other alliances had agreed to leave them and join the new platform. He said the seven would meet again on 5 December.

The parties are Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh, Islami Oikya Jote, Khelafat Majlis, Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan and Bangladesh Nezame Islam Party.

The announcement closes, at least formally, a process that began on 16 July at the Babunagar madrasa in Fatikchhari, Chattogram, where the parties first agreed in principle to move together. They were asked to submit written proposals by 3 August, and a Hefazat subcommittee reviewed them. Further meetings followed in Dhaka, but the framework was not finalised until Thursday's gathering.

The split the new platform is meant to repair dates from the last parliamentary election. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh contested as part of the BNP-led alliance, while Khelafat Majlis, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis and Bangladesh Nezame Islam Party were inside the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance. Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan was also in that alliance but ran separately after failing to agree on seat sharing. Islami Andolan Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote also contested on their own.

That division carried into this year. Khelafat Majlis said in July it would stop taking part in the 11-party alliance's programmes, and Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan had already distanced itself. Bangla Tribune reported that the aim of the new platform was to contest the coming local government elections together, after BNP and Jamaat each announced they would field candidates on their own in polls held without party symbols.

The talks were not smooth. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam proposed that the new alliance have no relationship with Jamaat, and Islami Andolan Bangladesh proposed that members enter no understanding with other political groups. Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan and Islami Oikya Jote wanted the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat creed written in as the basis of the alliance, while Khelafat Majlis argued against making the exclusion of Jamaat a precondition and Bangladesh Nezame Islam Party opposed conditions on other alliances.

Jamaat has been openly sceptical. In July, its assistant secretary general and 11-party coordinator, Hamidur Rahman Azad, described the Hefazat initiative as part of a "government conspiracy" aimed at weakening the opposition movement. Hefazat's joint secretary general, Azizul Haque Islamabadi, rejected the charge at the time, saying the only objective was to preserve the unity of the Qawmi stream.

Hefazat describes itself as a non-political organisation, yet several of its senior leaders also lead Qawmi-based parties, and it was the ameer, Allama Shah Muhibbullah Babunagari, who began the unity effort. Maulana Sajidur Rahman said on Thursday that Hefazat would keep its own non-partisan role while helping the parties stay together, according to Dhaka Times24.

What the platform will actually be remains unclear. No leadership structure, charter or decision-making body has been made public, and it is not yet confirmed whether it will function as an electoral alliance or as a coordinating forum. Nor is it clear whether every member will formally exit its current alliance, or whether Jamaat will treat the departures as final. The answers matter for the local elections, where the Qawmi parties hope to pool support that was split between rival camps last time.

The 5 December meeting is the next test. If the seven settle their rules on leadership and on membership of other alliances, the platform could become a durable third pole in Islamist politics. If they do not, Thursday's announcement may prove to be another round of talks rather than a new alliance.

NEXT STORY Bangladesh

Fire in Sreepur bazar burns a mosque, jute and cotton warehouses

Four Fire Service units took nearly two hours to bring the pre-dawn blaze at No. 2 C&B Bazar in Channapara under control. No casualties were reported and investigators have not yet said what caused it.

ScrollBeat Desk22 Oct 2026, 16:27Open this article

File photo: Fire Service and Civil Defence units at the scene of a vehicle fire on Airport Road in Dhaka in January 2017. Representative image, not from the Sreepur bazar fire. Photo: Shadman Samee/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0. Shadman Samee / Wikimedia Commons

A pre-dawn fire at a village bazar in Gazipur's Sreepur upazila burned a mosque, two warehouses and a row of shops before firefighters brought it under control on Thursday morning, the Fire Service said.

The fire broke out at No. 2 C&B Bazar in Channapara village, inside Sreepur municipality, at about 3:30am. Residents told local reporters they saw flames coming from a warehouse used to store jhut, the jute waste that is sold on to mills and used in padding, yarn and low-grade fabric.

Nurul Karim, station officer of Sreepur Fire Service, said the station took the first call at about 3:55am and sent two units. The fire had already spread through the tightly packed market, so a third unit from Sreepur and a unit from Rajendrapur Modern Fire Station were called in. The four units brought the blaze under control at 5:48am, almost two hours after the first call.

By then the fire had gutted the jute waste warehouse, a cotton warehouse, a sanitary ware shop, several chicken shops, a scrap dealer's shop and the bazar's mosque, according to the Fire Service account carried by Ittefaq and Jago News.

Karim said there had been no immediate report of anyone killed or injured. The market was empty at that hour, which limited the risk to people, but the warehouses were full of combustible material and the lanes between the shops are narrow, the conditions that let a fire move quickly through a bazar of this kind.

The cause of the fire has not been established. Karim said the damage would be assessed and the origin investigated. Traders who lost stock said they were waiting for the Fire Service's estimate before they could say what the losses amount to.

Jute waste is one of the most flammable goods traded around Gazipur's textile belt, and warehouses holding it are common in and around the district's markets. A fire in a jhut store can smoulder for hours inside bales and spread to neighbouring shops through shared tin roofs and timber partitions.

What remains unclear is how the fire started, whether the mosque and the warehouses shared an electricity connection, and what the total loss will be. The Fire Service has not released a damage figure, and no case has been filed.

Sreepur municipality and the district administration are expected to inspect the site before the market reopens. The bazar's traders, many of whom keep their stock in the same building they sell from, face the usual problem after such a fire: proving what they had before it burned.