Bodies of 2 Bangladeshi workers killed in separate Russia fires brought home

The remains of two Bangladeshi workers who died in separate fires in Russia have been brought home.

The bodies arrived at Dhaka’s Shahjalal International Airport aboard Turkish Airlines flight TK-0172 at 5:18am on Thursday.

Shariful Islam, deputy director of the Expatriate Welfare Desk at Shahjalal International Airport, confirmed the matter to bdnews24.com.

The two workers have been identified as Md Mominul Islam of Roumari Upazila in Kurigram and Md Shafiqul Islam of Pangsha Upazila in Rajbari.

The first secretary (labour) at the Bangladesh Embassy in Moscow said in a message that Mominul died from burns sustained in a blast during gas pipeline testing at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex, where LLC Sinopec Engineering Group operates as an engineering contractor.

Shafiqul died in a separate fire at the Zvezda shipbuilding facility.

Their bodies were sent from Moscow to Dhaka on Tuesday after the necessary legal and official procedures were completed.

The bodies are being handed over to their families with the assistance of the Expatriate Welfare Desk at Shahjalal International Airport.

A massive fire broke out at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex (AGCC), near the town of Svobodny in Russia’s Amur region, on Aug 25.

Fifteen people were killed and 36 Bangladeshi workers were injured in the blaze, which began in an auxiliary section of the complex’s pyrolysis unit.

Four Bangladeshis were among those killed.

The bodies of two of them -- Zakir Hossain of Bhairab in Kishoreganj and Md Alal Hossain Raju of Gangni in Meherpur -- were brought home on Sept 9.

Mominul’s body arrived on Thursday, while the body of the fourth Bangladeshi victim, Abdul Quddus, is still undergoing procedures before it can be repatriated.