Fire guts TBS journalist Jahidul's house in Jhalakathi

A fire gutted the house of The Business Standard journalist Md Jahidul Islam in Jhalakathi.

The incident took place in Rampur village of Kathalia upazila on Friday (27 December) night.

Jahidul said no one had been at his house for the past 10 days. Suddenly, around 10:30pm on Friday, he came to know through locals that his house had caught on fire. 

He said the fire caused damages worth Tk25 lakh.

Asked about the cause of the fire, he said, "I believe it was an arson attack. Because land deeds and other necessary documents were lost. The trunk in which the documents were kept was also found broken."

When asked if he suspected anyone in the fire incident, Jahidul said, "I don't want to comment on this for now. I filed a general diary with Kathalia Police Station today [Sunday]. The police will investigate and uncover the truth." 

Kathalia Fire Service Sub-Officer Md Wadud Hawlader said, "We quickly went to the spot after receiving the news of the fire. But since the road was narrow, we had to stop the car quite a distance from the spot. There was some delay in getting the necessary equipment from there to start extinguishing the fire." 

He also said, "When we reached the scene, we saw that the fire had spread throughout the house. Almost all the furniture was burnt in the fire. Since the people of the house were not present at the time of the incident, it was not possible to confirm the origin of the fire."