Three body bags stand on trolleys outside the Emergency Department at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. They contain the bodies of four victims of an arson attack on a train. The remains of a mother and child, still holding each other in death, are inside one of the bags.

A fire blazed through three compartments of Mohanganj Express train from Netrokona as it arrived in Dhaka early on Tuesday morning. Passengers panicked, attempting to rush out. Many managed to escape, but the fire service recovered the four bodies from one of the compartments after they put out the blaze.

The police later sent the bodies to the morgue at DMCH. Two of them were identified as Nadira Akhtar Poppy, 35, and her 3-year-old son Yasin. The two other male victims were not identified as of 11 am.

Poppy’s husband Mizanur Rahman has a business in Dhaka’s Kawran Bazar. She was taking the train to Dhaka with their two children and her younger brother, according to Mizanur’s brother Delowar Hossain Titu, who spoke to the media at the hospital. Nadira’s brother is also a minor, he said.

Nadira’s eldest son and his uncle managed to escape the train when it was set ablaze, but she and her younger son were trapped inside.

Yasin’s body was found clinging to his mother, Titu said.

The child may have been clinging to his mother out of fear and the mother might have been holding on to him to try and save him, said Commissioner Habibur Rahman of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

The passengers noticed the fire when the train was arriving at the Khilkhet station, said Mohammad Mohsin, chief of Tejgaon Police Station. Their screams brought the train to a halt at Tejgaon station. The fire service attempted to extinguish the blaze.

Anowar Hossain, superintendent of the Dhaka region's rail police, says they initially believe the fire was an act of 'political sabotage'.

The train staff first noticed the fire at the connection point between two carriages. They tried to put it out with fire extinguishers but could not control it. The fire then spread to the neighbouring compartments.

The fire caused a panic as passengers attempted to flee. The early hour and the sleepy environment meant that many passengers had no idea what was going on.

Several people were also injured while trying to flee the train. One of them, 53-year-old Nurul Haque aka Abdul Kader, received a blow to the head and has been admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. He hailed from Netrokona’s Kendua and works as an administrative officer in the transport branch of the Ha-meem Group of Industries.