United News of Bangladesh

Chinese police have detained those responsible for a steel factory in the Inner Mongolia region after an explosion killed two people and sent 84 others to hospital, with eight still missing. City authorities in Baotou said a pressurised storage tank used to hold steam and high-temperature water exploded at a Baogang United Steel plant at around 3pm local time on Sunday. The blast triggered tremors across nearby areas, officials said on Monday. Rescue teams are continuing their search for eight people who remain unaccounted for. A representative of Baotou’s Information Office told a news conference that emergency crews were working around the clock at the site. Baogang United Steel is a major state-owned enterprise, according to Chinese state media.

Power generation at Unit-1 of the Barapukuria Thermal Power Plant in Dinajpur was suspended on Sunday (January 18, 2026) after a boiler tube burst, bringing electricity production at the plant to a complete halt. As a result, all three units of the plant, with a combined capacity of 525 megawatts (MW), are now out of operation. Read more: Child killed, 15 injured as bus overturns in Dinajpur Abu Bakar Siddique, chief engineer of the power plant, said that of the three units, Unit-1, with a capacity of 125 MW, had been generating around 60 MW of electricity at the time of the incident. “The boiler tube of Unit-1 burst around 11am due to excessive heat pressure. The water flowing inside the boiler has a temperature of around 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit,” he said. He added that it may take about a week for the boiler to cool down, after which the extent of the damage can be assessed. “If repairs are completed successfully, power generation can be resumed,” he said. Meanwhile, Unit-3, which has a capacity of 275 MW, has been shut down for overhauling work being carried out by Chinese engineers, while Unit-2 (125 MW) has remained out of operation for a long time due to technical faults. As a result, the coal-fired power plant is currently completely shut down. Read more: Big push for renewables: 220 MW Sonagazi solar plant gets green light Officials warned that the shutdown may lead to load-shedding in northern districts, potentially disrupting production at electricity-dependent industries and causing hardship across the region.

Economist Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya on Saturday (8th November 2025) urged political parties to make a firm commitment in their election manifestos to eradicate all forms of discrimination from the country’s legal and social frameworks. “Political parties have to pledge to eradicate discrimination from the legal context in their election manifestos,” said Dr Debapriya, Convener of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh. He emphasised that the Citizen’s Platform is dedicated to eliminating discrimination in every form within legal and societal structures, and that the inclusion of such commitments in election manifestos would represent a strong step towards implementation in the future. Interim govt pursuing reforms without engaging stakeholders: Debapriya Dr Debapriya made the remarks while addressing the opening session of a dialogue titled “Elimination of Discrimination in Bangladesh: Legal Context, Current Reality, and Way Forward.” He highlighted the gap between constitutional promises and the lived realities of marginalised and vulnerable communities across the country. Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh organised the event in collaboration with the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Manusher Jonno Foundation, and Nagorik Uddyog (Citizen’s Initiative), with support from Switzerland and UNDP. Read more: Bangladesh Election: EC to begin political dialogues this week  

At least 10 people sustained burn injuries after a fire triggered by an explosion broke out at a gas cylinder shop in Chandanaish upazila of Chattogram early Wednesday. The incident occurred around 6:30 am at a shop in Bailtoli Yunus Market owned by Mahbubur Rahman who also sustained burn injuries. The victims include shop owner Mahbubur Rahman, 45, and workers Md Saurav Rahman, 25; Mohammad Kofil, 22; Mohammad Riaz, 17; Mohammad Yunus, 26; Mohammad Akib, 17; Md Harun, 29; Mohammad Idris, 30; Mohammad Liton, 28; and Mohammad Saleh, 33. Witnesses said the fire broke out when a worker lit a cigarette while unloading gas cylinders, sparking a blaze that led to a cylinder explosion. A fire service unit from Chandanaish station rushed to the spot and managed to douse the flames. “We rescued two people and sent them to hospital, while locals had already taken several others. The extent of damage will be known after investigation,” said Saber Hossain, an officer at Chandanaish Fire Station. Narayanganj blast: 14-year-old girl dies, third victim in family The injured were admitted to the Burn and Plastic Surgery Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Physicians said several of them are in critical condition and five to six may be transferred to Dhaka for better treatment. Sub-inspector Ashikul Islam of the police outpost at the CMCH said that several people who were burned have been admitted to the hospital's burn unit. Locals said employees inside the shop and nearby workers were caught in the fire immediately after the explosion.

Rescuers recovered the bodies of 11 coal miners who died last week after a methane gas explosion caused a coal mine to collapse in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Monday. An operation is still underway to find a 12th worker who has been missing since Thursday, when the mine collapsed in Singidi city in Balochistan province, said Abdul Ghani, a mines inspector. Two more coal miners were killed on Sunday when another mine collapsed in Harnai, a district in Balochistan, he said. Safety standards are commonly ignored in the coal mining industry in Pakistan, leading to accidents and explosions that kill dozens of mine workers every year. Miners often complain that owners fail to install safety equipment. Read: 3 Pakistani soldiers, 19 insurgents killed in separate raids in northwest Last week, Pakistani security forces also rescued at least eight of 16 mine workers who had been kidnapped by local militants in the restive northwest, and an operation is still underway to rescue the remaining miners.

The death toll from a gas explosion, in Dhaka’s Jurain area on August 14, has reached three as a five-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries today. The deceased was identified as Afsana, daughter of Atahar Ali. Dr Tariqul Islam, resident medical officer of Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said that Afsana had been undergoing treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital with 25 percent burn injuries. She breathed her last around 7:50 am today. Mother, daughter die in Sylhat gas cylinder blast; 4 injured Earlier, on Monday, five members of a family, including Afsana, suffered burn injuries in an explosion apparently from a gas pipeline leak. Among the injured, Atahar Ali, 35, father of the child, and his wife Mukta Khatun, 30, died at the hospital on August 17. Death toll from Gazipur blast stands at two Two more victims, Altaf Sikder, 72, and his wife Morjina Begum, 50, Mukta’s parents, received first aid. Woman injured in Jurain blast dies at DMCH  

Four people including three members of a family sustained burn injuries in an explosion at a residential building in Fatullah of Narayanganj early Sunday (August 13, 2023). Two more people sustained injuries in the incident. Sabuj Khandaker; Rana Miah, his wife Bithi Aktar and their child are now undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery in Dhaka. Read: Burnt mother succumbs to injuries in DMCH; baby in emergency One of the other injured was identified as fruit seller Abu Kalam who is receiving treatment at National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR). The other injured was given first aid. Neighbours and relatives of the burn victims said a blast occurred on the fifth floor of a six-storey residential building owned by one Aslam Sikdar around 12 am. Later, locals rescued the tenants and sent them to Narayanganj General Hospital. They were subsequently shifted to the capital’s burn institute. Read: Woman burnt to death in Chattogram Fakhruddin, deputy director of Narayanganj Fire Service and Civil Defence department, said doors and windows of the two units of the fifth floor and other valuables were burnt in the blast. Walls of the flat fell on the roof of a semi-pucca house near the building, leaving two more people injured, he said. The reason behind the blast and extent of damages will be known upon investigation, the fire service officer added. Reade more: 2 women among 9 burnt in gas line explosion in Dhaka

Natural gas leaked from a defective fitting at a Pennsylvania chocolate factory where a powerful explosion leveled one building, heavily damaged another and killed seven people, federal safety investigators said Tuesday as they continued to investigate the cause of the blast. One of two leaks at the R.M. Palmer Co. plant in West Reading was traced to a gas fitting that was installed in 1982 and was determined to have fractured, according to an investigative update released by the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators also determined there was a small leak on a natural gas fitting installed in 2021, the board said. The older fitting, made by DuPont, had a known tendency to crack, and it was added to a federal government list of pipe materials with “poor performance histories" in 2007, the safety board said. But it was left in place during utility work two years ago and remained connected to the natural gas system. 4 sustain burn injuries in explosion from gas leakage in Narayanganj The findings outraged lawyers for the victims' families. “It's one thing to lose a family member because of some unforeseen, unknown hazard,” said attorney Robert Mongeluzzi, who has filed suit against Palmer, DuPont and UGI Corp., the natural gas utility that served the chocolate factory. "But here, this was a problem and a defect that has been known for decades, and that makes the loss and the tragedy even worse." About 70 Palmer production workers and 35 office staff were working in two adjacent buildings at the time of the March 24 blast. Employees in both buildings told federal investigators they could smell gas before the explosion. Workers at the plant have accused Palmer of ignoring warnings of a natural gas leak, saying the plant, in a small town 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia, should have been evacuated. Toxic gas leak in South Africa has killed 16 people, including 3 children, police say UGI, which provided natural gas to the factory complex via two mains, has said there wasn’t any utility work going on in the area, and that it detected no sudden surge in gas usage before the explosion. Safety investigators determined that UGI replaced a service line at the Palmer plant in 2021, but kept the 1982 service tee connected to the system and fully pressurized. “We have reason to believe that UGI was very well aware of the dangerous, defective problems with the DuPont piping, yet left that DuPont piping in place in 2021,” said attorney Andrew Duffy, who works with Mongeluzzi to represent survivors and families of victims. Noting the safety board also found a leak in the new piping, he added: “Seven people lost their lives due to shoddy materials and shoddy work.” Couple who suffered burns in fire from ‘gas line leak’ in Dhaka's Tejgaon dies Civil litigation filed after the Palmer blast said older plastic pipe manufactured by DuPont and others has long been linked to failures around the country. Federal regulators said as far back as 1998 that much of the plastic pipe manufactured for natural gas service from the 1960s through the early 1980s was susceptible to cracking. Investigators said they are looking at the gas leaks as a possible cause or contributor of the chocolate factory blast, but have made no conclusions. “We are not at a point to say what caused the explosion,” NTSB spokesperson Keith Holloway said Tuesday. The cracked fitting was less than two feet from other pipelines that ran between the two plant buildings, including a steam line, a condensate line and several pipelines filled with heated chocolate. Investigators said they also saw a crack in the steam line. UGI said it’s aware of the safety board report and is cooperating. The utility declined further comment on an ongoing investigation. “Our focus and commitment remains with the victims and the West Reading community,” said utility spokesperson Joe Swope. Palmer said in a statement that it remains focused on rebuilding and “doing all we can to help the entire West Reading community recover.” DuPont said it was reviewing the safety board's report but declined further comment, citing the civil litigation.

Seven people were burned dead and another was injured after the gas cylinder of a microbus exploded on Dhaka-Khulna highway at Maligram in Bhanga upazila of Faridpur district on Saturday (June 24, 2023). The deceased included three women, two men and two children but their identities could not be known yet. A fire broke out in the microbus as its gas cylinder went off around 11 am, leaving five people dead on the spot and three others injured, said Tayumul Islam, officer-in-charge of Bhanga Highway Police. Read more: Couple who suffered burns in fire from ‘gas line leak’ in Dhaka's Tejgaon dies Two passengers succumbed to their injuries at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Medical College (BSMMC) Hospital, said Md Shahjahan, superintendent of the district police.   Injured microbus driver Mridul Malo, a resident of Sadar upazila, has been undergoing treatment at BSMMC hospital.   Read more: Wari fire death toll rises to 2 The bodies were kept at the hospital morgue for autopsy, he said, adding that the deceased hailed from Boalmari upazila of the district. Deputy Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan Talukder said they have already formed a five-member probe committee to look into the matter and asked to submit its report within next two days. He said Tk 20,000 was given for burial to the families of each deceased and Tk 10,000 for treatment of the injured driver. Read more: https://unb.com.bd/category/Bangladesh/man-injured-in-narayanganj-tv-blast-dies/117252

Three Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast in Mali on Sunday (May 28, 2023) morning. The blast took place on Sunday at around 9:30 am local time in Mali, when a motorcade of a patrol team under Bangladesh Formed Police Unit (BANFPU-2) reached the remote desert road along the mountains of Gundam-Tongka-Niaphungke Highway, some 15 km off from the Gundam Super Camp in Mali's Timbuktu Region, according to a press release issued from Police headquarters here on Monday evening. The Armoured personnel Carrier (APC), which was carrying the policemen, was also damaged in the incident, says the press release. The Police headquarters did not disclose identities of the three injured Bangladeshi police peacekeepers. Read more: US lauds Bangladeshi peacekeepers' role The patrol team was part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). According to the press release, the peacekeepers on patrol duty spotted a suspicious hole in the middle of the road. The IED exploded as they maneuvered past the hole. “Due to the intelligence of the police peacekeepers and the APCTs' capability to withstand the high-level explosions, they escaped from greater danger,” said the press release. It is also to be noted that MINUSMA authorities have highly appreciated the members of BANFPU-2, MINUSMA, and Mali as they have performed their peacekeeping duties with utmost professionalism and vigilance. Read more: 3 Bangladeshi peacekeepers injured in Central African Republic IED blast die IED blasts are common in this region of Mali.