HERAT CITY - An authorized government team on Monday arrived in western Herat province to assess and investigate what caused the fire outbreak in Islam Qala port.
Ghulam Bahauddin Jailani, state minister for natural disasters management, heads the13-member powerful probing team.
During a meeting in Herat, the minister said the team was comprised of 13 individuals from relevant organs.
All causes of the fire would be comprehensively assessed and then a solution for compensating the losses would be decided, he added.
“After the measurement of all the losses, the report would be shared with the president and his deputies and then the president would decide from where the damage would be compensated,” Jailani added.
He said that local officials who were involved or neglected about the fire would be also tried based on the law. The assessment of all these tasks may require several days, he said.
Amina Ahmadi, head of the customs department of the Ministry of Finance, said that the team was appointed based on a presidential decree and all the evaluations done by previous teams would be shared with the current one.
She said the process of cargo vehicles at the port was started on February 14 and there were no issues in this regard.
Abdul Wahid Qatali, Herat governor, also said that the team was given full authority and it would thoroughly assess the Islam Qala incident.
Hundreds of fuel tankers and cargo vehicles were destroyed in a massive fire in Islam Qala port a few days ago. The reason of the fire is still not clear.
Government officials say 20 people were injured but some other sources say up to 40 people injured or killed by the incident. (Pajhwok)