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A series of blasts inside a residential hotel in Dhaka in Bangladesh injured at least 50 people early on Monday.

According to the reports, the blasts occurred in three rounds between 2200 hours IST on Sunday and 0130 hours early on Monday in the 12-storey hotel Orchard Plaza located near civil centre in the capital city.

Police, elite RAB personnel and firefighters rushed to the spot when several explosions took place one after another, police said.

The actual cause of the blasts was not clearly ascertained by the police. It was suspected that blast occurred in a gas pipeline and short circuit inside the hotel that could have caused the explosions.

Many foreigners were also injured in the blasts, however there was no fatality reported yet. The injured, including members of the law-enforcing agencies and firefighters, were rushed to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Tags: Bangladesh, bomb blast, Dhaka, Terror Attack

The Kolkata-Dhaka Moitree Express was flagged off on Monday morning by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav resuming passenger train services between the two neighboring countries after 43 long years.

The train journey was interrupted briefly for 15 minutes at Naida at 8:35 am by a citizens group called ‘Amra Bengal’ demanding the scrapping of Indo-Bangladesh friendship treaty. Soon after the train is blocked, the police came into action to resume the journey.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Liquat Ali Chowdhury were present at the Kolkata railway terminal in north Kolkata at the flag-off ceremony of the six-coach train along with a host of dignitaries.

The bi-weekly service of the train is scheduled to leave Kolkata on Saturdays and Sundays at 7.10 am reaching Dhaka at 10.30 pm. From Dhaka, it will leave at 8.30 am to reach Kolkata at 9 pm.

Before partition, there was a regular over-night service from Kolkata to Dhaka via Goalanda and Narayangunj.

At the time of partition, there were three trains- East Bengal Mail, East Bengal Express, Barishal Express running from India to East Pakistan (Now Bagladesh). The trains were operational till 1965.

After 1965, there was left no train service between the two neighboring countries cutting all the links.

But the common history, culture and language of the people of West Bengal and Bangladesh demanded the need of a regular rail link which gave rise to only cargo services started in 1972. But soon this service also had to be discontinued. In 2000, goods services were restored with the commissioning of Petrapol-Benapol rail link.

After 43 years, Maitree is started to link the two countries. AC first class fare is set to charge Rs 780 while the cheapest service fare is upto Rs 320. The six coach train includes one AC first coach, one AC chair car, one Pantry car and two non-AC chair car.

Tags: Bangladesh, Dhaka, India, Kolkata, Train