Foreign experts have been invited to investigate the recent fire incident at the cargo village of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, said Adviser to the Ministry of Home Affairs Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday (25 October) after inspecting the damaged cargo village and e-gate areas of the airport, the adviser said that specialists from four countries — Australia, China, the United Kingdom and Turkey — have been asked to join the investigation.

The initiative has been taken to determine whether there was any mismanagement behind the fire at the cargo village. Experts from the four countries will investigate to find out the exact cause of the fire and who was responsible,” Jahangir Alam Chowdhury told the press briefing.

Describing the blaze as an accident, the adviser said that four units of the airport’s own fire service had immediately begun efforts to douse the flames. However, it took time to bring the situation under control as the fire spread rapidly.

Earlier, on 18 October, a massive fire broke out at the cargo village of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. It took fire service units, members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) more than seven and a half hours to fully control the blaze.

In recent days, limited-scale unloading of imported goods has resumed at the affected site.

The Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) has claimed that the fire caused losses amounting to Tk 12,000 crore.