When the state fails, people die: power department’s negligence kills three indigenous women in Bandarban

Our Correspondent, Bandarban

A teenage girl and two women from the Mro indigenous community were killed in the early hours of Monday in a remote village in Bangladesh’s southeastern Bandarban hill district after a faulty electrical transformer exploded, sending a deadly surge of electricity through their homes.

The incident, which took place in Ranglai Headman Para, a Mro-majority village nestled in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), has triggered public outcry over what locals describe as years of state neglect and the Bangladesh Power Development Board’s (PDB) callous disregard for repeated safety warnings.

The victims — Tumle Mro, 17; her grandmother Urkan Mro, 71; and Rowleng Mro, 35 — were electrocuted during the chaos that ensued when electrical sparks and arcs lit up the night inside their tin-and-bamboo dwellings.

Tumle and Urkan died instantly while attempting to switch off appliances. Rowleng succumbed to her injuries at a local hospital.

“I had a happy family,” said Rengyen Mro, the father of Tumle and son of Urkan, speaking through tears.

“We told the power department again and again about the faulty transformer. A technician came on Sunday, but nothing was fixed. Then, just hours later, flames. Sparks everywhere. My daughter tried to turn off the fridge — she was thrown to the floor. My mother tried to save her and died in the process. No one from the government came. My family was obliterated.”

Witnesses say the transformer, located along the Bandarban–Chimbuk–Thanchi road, had been malfunctioning for two years.

On Sunday night, following heavy rainfall, it reportedly caught fire, triggering an uncontrolled voltage surge that electrified homes across Ranglai Para and the neighbouring villages of Moddhom Para and Chingsong Para.

“There were blue sparks and loud cracking sounds coming out of the walls,” said one resident.

“The electricity stayed on for nearly 30 minutes. People were screaming. We called the PDB over and over again. No one came.”

Multiple residents sustained injuries. Survivors described seeing fire pour from ceiling fans, light switches, and power sockets. The modest houses, built with conductive tin roofing and bamboo walls, became death traps in seconds.

When contacted, PDB Executive Engineer Syed Amir Hossain said he had not been informed of the situation until after the incident occurred.

“Had I known earlier, we would have taken immediate steps,” he said, adding that an investigation would be launched into the transformer failure and subsequent fatalities.

But in the eyes of the community, that response rings hollow — part of a familiar pattern of bureaucratic inertia and institutional indifference that has long defined government treatment of Bangladesh’s indigenous citizens.

“This is not just a local tragedy,” said one rights activist in Bandarban, who requested anonymity due to safety concerns.

“It is a window into how disposable indigenous lives are in the eyes of the state. This transformer had been broken for years. The government ignored it — and now three people are dead.”

The Chittagong Hill Tracts, home to around a dozen indigenous ethnic groups, has long been plagued by poverty, underdevelopment, and systemic marginalisation.

Infrastructural neglect is rampant, and vital services — electricity, clean water, health care — remain unreliable, or absent altogether.

Activists argue that such disasters are not coincidental, but rather the predictable outcomes of a state apparatus that prioritises development elsewhere while leaving minority communities in deep precarity.

The grief-stricken community is demanding a judicial inquiry, financial redress for the bereaved families, and the urgent replacement of hazardous electrical infrastructure.

For Rengyen Mro, though, the loss is irreversible. “I want justice,” he said.

“But nothing will bring back my daughter. Nothing will bring back my mother. The state failed us. And now, all I have left is their memory — and my rage.”