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At least five people were killed and scores injured in an explosion at a depot in a south-eastern town in Bangladesh, officials say, BBC reported.

The explosion happened after firefighters were called to put out a fire at a container storage facility in the town of Sitakunda.

Twenty of the injured are in critical condition with burns covering 60% to 90% of their bodies, a doctor at a hospital treating the injured told AFP.

The cause of the fire remains unknown.

Some of the containers at the depot are believed to have stored chemicals, local media report.

The blast reportedly shattered the windows of several buildings nearby and was felt from areas as far as 4km (2.4 miles) away, according to local news outlet Prothomalo.

The town is only 40km (25 miles) from the country's second-largest city, Chittagong, and one of the city's hospitals has been inundated with victims. The injured include depot workers as well as fire-fighters and police, according to local media, according to BBC.

Several hours after the blast, fire-fighters were still attempting to extinguish the fire on Sunday morning.

About 600 people worked at the depot, the facility's director, Mujibur Rahman, told AFP.

Fires are common in Bangladesh. Last year, at least 39 people were killed after a ferry caught fire in the south of the country. And earlier that same year, at least 52 people died in a factory fire in Rupganj near the capital, Dhaka.

Three workers were also killed in 2020 after an oil tank exploded in another container storage depot in Patenga, not far from Chittagong, BBC reported.

Are the gunmen involved in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder hiding in Nepal? Investigation into the deadly shooting has led a team of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell to the neighbouring country, sources said, India Today reported.

Based on specific intelligence inputs, the police team reached Nepal on Friday to nab the assailants believed to have fled to the Himalayan nation after the attack on Moose Wala at Jawaharke village in Punjab’s Mansa district on Sunday.

The development comes hours after news emerged that the Punjab Police detained two men in connection with Moose Wala’s murder. The two suspects were apprehended in Bhirdana village in Fatehabad for allegedly providing the Bolero car which was used in the shootout.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Punjab Police made their first arrest in the case, two days after the singer-politician was shot dead in his own jeep. Police said accused Manpreet Singh supplied vehicles to the assailants who were involved in the killing of Moose Wala. Singh was produced before a court the same day, and sent to a five-day police custody, according to India Today.

With Moose Wala’s murder suspected to be the fallout of an inter-gang rivalry, Delhi Police's Special Cell got three-day custody of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. During questioning, he admitted that his gang members, including Canada-based Goldy Brar, hatched a conspiracy to kill the Punjabi singer.

In a Facebook post, Goldy Brar had claimed responsibility for Moose Wala’s murder. He said he had killed Moose Wala to avenge the death of gangster Vicky Middukhera.

Gangster Kala Jathedi and his aide Kala Rana, who were in police custody in a different case, were also questioned in connection with the Moose Wala’s murder.

Unidentified gunmen had ambushed Moose Wala in Jawarharke village in Mansa and opened fire at the Thar he was travelling in, mere days after the singer-politician's security cover was revoked by the Punjab government.

Moose Wala had sustained 19 bullet wounds in the attack and died within 15 minutes of being shot, his autopsy report stated. He was cremated at his native Moosa village in Mansa on Tuesday, India Today reported.

A group of civil society leaders has objected to the political criticism and comments on the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the Nijgadh International Airport.

Issuing a statement on Friday, former lawmaker Damannath Dhungana, former Chief Justice Anup Raj Sharma, former Justice Bal Ram KC among eight leaders termed the directive issued by the International Relations Committee to the government as an interference in the jurisdiction of the court.

Earlier on May 30, the Committee had directed the government to start the construction of the Nijgadh International Airport at the earliest saying that the verdict of the Supreme Court does not seem practical from any point of view.

They said that the directive curtailed the rights of the judiciary to deliver justice.

The leaders have also said that the directive issued by the Committee to the government was against the rules of the House of Representatives.

The other civil society leaders who issued the statement were Charan Prasain, Kanakmani Dixit, Taranath Dahal, Gita Pathak and Raju Prasad Chapagain.

Every closet has far too many clothes. Yet we are all guilty of buying more—for a special occasion or on a whim as it looked nice on the mannequin. My father himself has way too many shirts. We know because we counted and joked about how he might soon have enough to wear a new one every day of the year. But he hasn’t worn more than half of them in a long time. He has a handful of favorites that he sticks to. 

That possibly is true for all of us. We often buy more than we need or use—it’s the bane of our existence. There’s always something better out there, something we must absolutely have to elevate our dress game. 

But our obsession with fast fashion can be costly, for our wallets and the environment too. It’s not unusual for Nepali households to throw old clothes in the trash, which ultimately end up in the landfill. There’s a lot we can do to prevent this—from investing in quality clothes that last long to donating what we don’t need so that someone else can use them. There are also companies that upcycle old fabrics to give them a new lease of life. While investing in ethical, sustainable brands might be the only long-term solution, becoming a little more conscious of what we buy, wear, and throw can also go a long way in negating the effects of fast-fashion. 

Meena Gurung, founder of Bora Studio, a slow fashion, environmentally responsible clothing brand that uses natural dyes and materials, says fast fashion brands come out with 20 to 30 new designs a month. The clothes are mass produced and the  labor- and resource-intensive process does a lot of harm to the environment. Most people, she says, either don’t know this or choose to ignore it. But understanding fashion and changing our relationship to clothes are essential to leaving behind a lighter carbon footprint. “We tend to be driven by our wants and needs. Not by the results of our actions,” she says.

Rajan Chakradhar of Upcycle Nepal, a company that reuses and recycles old fabrics to make new products, adds that most clothes are purchased for single-use. Many clothes donated at Upcycle Nepal are in perfectly good condition, but they still get tossed out as new designs replace them. “You could simply style an outfit differently or mix and match items to create a new look instead of wearing an ensemble just once,” he says. And even when a clothing item is at the end of its life, it needn’t be thrown away. There are plenty of ways to reuse and recycle fabrics. 

“We have, so far, saved 200,000 kgs of clothes from going to the landfill by repurposing them as laptop sleeves, side bags, and other small accessories like card holders and scrunchies,” says Chakradhar. Upcycle Nepal is trying to raise awareness to cut down on fabric trash but admits it’s a rather steep climb. 

Kishan Shrestha of Kashyapi Nepal, a slow fashion brand, says you can’t preach about the importance of sustainability, especially not in the fashion industry where trends rule the runway. But brands like theirs can push the concept through natural materials and timeless designs. The onus, he says, lies on those working in the fashion industry to make clothes in an environment-friendly way. 

One reason clothes are thrown away, Shrestha says, is that people don’t know how to take care of them, and they look old after a couple of wears. Even quality clothes won’t last if you don’t handle them properly, he says. The biggest blunder people apparently make is not reading the wash label. Every piece of clothing comes with specific care instructions but we rarely follow them. “We are washing and drying our clothes all wrong. Some people wring and hang clothes that should be allowed to dry naturally by laying them flat. Others machine-wash items that should be hand-washed,” says Shrestha.

Gurung of Bora Studio agrees that people don’t read tags or bother to learn about the clothes they are buying. Nepalis, she says, also tend to soak clothes overnight before washing them, resulting in shrinkage and fading. Most of us also dry our clothes in the sun but clothes made of natural fabrics need to be kept in the shade. 

Apart from caring for the clothes we have, Gurung says we must choose our clothes with the same caution—be wary of what we bring into our homes and put on our bodies. “A great way to start doing that is by inquiring while shopping about the materials and where and how the clothes were made,” she says. Over time, this habit will make you conscious of your actions, and the seller or designer mindful of theirs.

But apart from small, everyday actions, Anuja Rajbhandari Shrestha, cofounder of Ekadeshma, a sustainable lifestyle brand, says better government policies on textiles and manufacturing are needed to curb people’s dependence on fast fashion. It would also help our economy if more clothes were made in Nepal rather than importing them from India or China. Sarita Tamang, production manager at Dinadi Nepal, an ethical knitwear brand, says our market doesn’t value sustainable products as they are often on the pricier side. But you are getting your money’s worth as the items are of good quality and will last several years. 

Chitra Dahal of Sukhawati Store, a thrift store, says there’s no concept of repairing and reusing clothes as everything is easily replaceable. From 2016 to 2021, Sukhawati Store collected almost 38,000 kg of unwanted clothes, those that would otherwise have ended up at Sisdol. Many of them were reconditioned and sold second hand at their store in Samakushi, Kathmandu, some for as low as Rs 10. Dahal says of the Rs 6.4m generated in the past five years, 30 to 40 percent has been operation cost while  the rest has been used on social work. 

“There needs to be more awareness about recycling or donating clothes you don’t want. But the primary focus should definitely be on reducing consumption—only buy what you need and use with care to ensure it lasts,” he says.