Among the nine people killed in a fire at the “Sikha Inn” residential hotel on Free School Street in Kolkata’s New Market area were four members of one family from Kushtia, including local journalist Debashish Dutta.
The fire broke out at the multistory hotel around 2:00 a.m. Tuesday night into Wednesday, leading to the casualties.
The dead include Debashish Dutta, 40, district correspondent for the Bengali daily Ajker Patrika and for Nagorik TV in Kushtia; his wife, Afsana Shammi, 36; his 2-year-old son; and his father-in-law, Akram Ali, 68.
Anisuzzaman Dablu, former general secretary of the Kushtia Press Club, confirmed the deaths of journalist Debashish Dutta’s family members.
Journalist Debashish’s home is in Chairman Goli, Aruapara, in Kushtia town, while his father-in-law’s home is in Thanapara.
According to family sources, Debashish Dutta traveled with his family to Bangalore, India, on August 3 for medical treatment. After his wife’s treatment concluded, they flew to Kolkata on August 18 and checked into the hotel. They were scheduled to return to Kushtia on August 19.
He is survived by a 6-year-old daughter, who had been left in Bangladesh in the care of her grandmother.
Debashish Dutta served as acting editor of a Kushtia-based newspaper called Daily Ajker Alo. He had long served in various elected positions at the Kushtia Press Club and was widely known in journalism circles. His death has cast a pall of grief over journalists in Kushtia.
When news of his death spread among journalists in Kushtia that afternoon, colleagues were overcome with grief. Journalist Debashish Dutta’s father-in-law, Akram Hossain, had worked for a long time at the West Zone Power Distribution Company Limited (WZPDCL). He had accompanied the family for his daughter’s medical treatment because of her illness.
A visit to Debashish’s home found the rest of the family going about as normal; as of this report, no one there had yet been informed of the family’s deaths.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report