Abdul Khaleque Khandker: It was the evening on Sunday, 27 June. Many people offered the Magreb prayer at the Chan mosque, hard by Mogbazar wireless rail gate. I also entered the Chan mosque to offer the prayers. I was to go past Mogbazar wireless towards Fakirapool on an urgent piece of business.

After prayer, I come out of the mosque and, without any particular purpose, I phoned to a person. This call was not that much important. The talk over the phone went on a bit lengthy and just when I heard a huge sound of explosion from the wireless gate area.

It was not an ordinary sound as it appeared to me. I shuddered. The Chan mosque and its vicinities shook by the impact of the sound wave. From the other end, my counterpart said, what was this huge sound?

If I did not phone him, I would have been present beside the place of the mishap by that time. I may say, Allah granted me an escape.

I proceeded towards the wireless gate and saw injured people were rushing toward the Community hospital beside the rail line. First, one then another and then many more injured people awash with blood rushed into the Community hospital. It was a horrific sight, indeed. I dared not to go ahead fearing further worse to happen.

The matter is not that who fell victims and did not. But lives are valuables. All the deceased and injured people were innocent and had had not the least connection to that place of explosion.

With Narayanganj gas explosion in the mosque, almost everyday, we see the news of deaths by gas explosion in different parts of the country.

Now people have raised question about the monitoring functions of the gas maintenance authority. Who will take the liabilities of these deaths and loss? Or is it the wrong of the people who die falling prey to the mishaps?

From different sources it is learnt, at least 07 people were killed in the incident hundreds, including many pedestrians and commuters were badly injured and are being treated for their injuries at different hospitals in the capital.

It is being anticipated that the blast to have been caused by a gas leak somewhere in the building. Police have ruled out any subversive act behind the incident.

Intermingled pillars, glass shards and broken concrete were all over 79 Outer Circular Road. Two heavily damaged buses were left in a heap outside the three-storey building, witnesses said.

The ground floor of the building housed outlets of Shawarma House restaurant chain and Bengal Meat. Singer has its showroom on the second floor.

Aarong has an outlet opposite the collapsed building. Broken glass walls of some buildings, including that of Aarong, littered the road.

The building, which is believed to be the scene of the explosion, has a three-storey facade but an additional floor can be seen at the back.

It is quite an old structure, said Oliur Rahman, a resident of Boro Moghbazar.

"We have received information so far that seven people have been killed in the incident," Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam said.

Most of the injured have been admitted to DhakaMedicalCollegeHospital, Sheikh Hasina Burn and Plastic Surgery Institute and Moghbazar`s CommunityMedicalCollegeHospital.

Two, including a child, died at CommunityHospital after the incident, according to a reporter’s account from the scene. A child was among the dead.

Meanwhile, two others, both men, passed away at the burns institute, according to Inspector Bachchu Mia, in charge of the police camp at DhakaMedicalCollegeHospital. Four or five of the victims were in “critical” condition, he added.

Samanta Lal Sen, the convener of the burns unit, said, "Four of the injured suffered burns in different parts of their bodies. Two were found dead.”

Another patient at the unit named Swapan,35, passed away around 10 pm.

As many as 41 people have been admitted to DhakaMedicalCollegeHospital. Among them, a woman named Jannat, 25, succumbed to her injuries, Bachchu Miah said.