Anushandhitshu 
Singpara Meteorite
31 January 2006. LMT 4.30 pm (UT: 10.30), a piece of meteorite has fallen at Singpara village in Thakurgaon, northwest district of Bangladesh, 500 km away from the capital city Dhaka. Local people first identify it as a `fireball’ hit on the ground. It makes approximately 3ft deep hole when it hit on earth and made an 11.5 dia c.m hole. Then local people informed nearest police station about its existence. Police collected it and reserved it in Police station. Hearing the news Shahjahan Mridha (Benu), Ifteekhar Ayub (Pappu), Naeem Ul Islam (Opu) member of Anushandhitshu Chokro Science Organization rush to the place to investigate the matter. After proper observation, the observation team confirmed it as a meteorite.
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| Name: | Singpara meteorite | |
| Location: | Country: Bangladesh, District: Thakurgaon, Union: Salandar, Village: Singpara | |
| Longitude: | 80 degree 30 minute/ East | |
| Latitude: | 26 degree 02 min /North | |
| Fallen Date/time: | 31 January, 2006, LMT: 4.30 pm, UT: 10.30, (+/- 10min) | |
| Weight: | 2459.71g (digital weight machine) | |
| Depth: | 3ft(approximately) | |
| Dia of the crater: | Main dia only 11.5cm (approximately) | |
| Fallen direction: | West | |
Important Picture of the Meteorite |
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National Museum of Science & Technology
Agargaon, Sher -e- Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh.
I am sending herewith the names of the members of the Meteorite Research Committee in Bangladesh
In view of a meteorite having been found recently in Singpara village under the District of Thakurgaon and extensive public interest generated in this matter, a committee (Meteorite Research Committee) is formed with the following members for conducting appropriate research programmed in this area of science & technology.
Chief Adviser:
Dr. Abdul Moyeen Khan, M.P, Minister for Science & Information & Communication Technology.
Adviser:
Mr. Colin Henshaw, Member of the British Astronomical Society
Convener:
Dr. A R Khan, President Bangladesh Astronomical Society.
Members:
Mr. Abdul Halim Hawlader, Chairman- (Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation-SPARRSO)
Mr. Md. Shahjahan Mridha (Benu), Former General Secretary of Anushandhitshu Chokro Science Organization.
Mr. F R Sarker, General Secretary, Bangladesh Astronomical Society
Mr. Naeem Ul Islam (Opu), General Secretary Astronomy Section, Anushandhitshu Chokro Science Organization.
Mr. Ali Akbar Babul, Amateur Astronomer.
Member Secretary:
Mr. Md. Nurul Haque, Director National Museum of Science & Technology.
Organizations to be included:
Anushandhitshu Chokro Science Organization
bangladesh atomic energy commission (BAEC)
1. Dr. A.K.M.Abdul Hakim, Chif Engineer & Head Materials Science Division (BAEC)
National Museum of Science & Technology
It happened right in front of Jorina Begum. She was standing at the porch of her hut looking westward. According to her own word -- she first heard a strong hissing sound and then saw a dark black object swiftly coming from the south-western sky and landing on the southern patch of land adjacent to her house. It was 4:30 in the afternoon while this maiden of Singpara of Thakurgaon saw a meteorite fall. However, Jorina was clueless about what had taken place. Right after she saw an object fall from the sky, she contacted the village headman. It was he who brought it to the notice of the local thana. By the time Rowshan Mostofa, the officer-in-charge of the Thakurgoan sadar thana, came to the spot and started taking pictures of the small hole that looked slightly bigger than a rat-hole using his mobile phone, everyone in the village scrambled to take a look.
As Shingpara is near the Indian border, many among the villagers thought that it was a mortar shell thrown by the Indian border guard BSF. When the BDR, the border guard of Bangladesh, came to the spot after the thana officers contacted them, they determined that it was not a shell but a meteorite that came from the outer space.
Mostofa, the head of the Thakugaon sadar thana, arranged for the 2459.71g meteorite to be dug out from its three and a half feet cavity and taken to the thana. The next day the news of the meteorite falling from the sky spread. The incident became a source of speculation for locals. It turned out that not only were the local people ill informed, but the newsmen of local newspapers too had little knowledge of cosmic rocks. The news of the Thakurgaon meteorite got published in newspapers under misleading headlines. Meanwhile, among the public, various kinds of stories proliferated. Among the stories circulated in the locality a common one had to do with the claim to prescience. A number of the villagers claimed in the successive days after the fall of the meteorite that they had dreamt about it early on. Some of the local Hindus went as far as to see the incident as an ominous sign and went to the thana to worship the meteorite the next day of the fall. It was Mostafa who intervened. He used to be a student of science, so he could not allow superstition to get the upper hand. However, it was not until the arrival of the members of the largest science organization in Bangladesh called Anushandhitshu Chokro, which literally means a 'circle of inquisitive persons' from Dhaka that the villagers were exposed to proper information about the meteorite, which put a stop to all kinds of metaphysical claims.
“It was on February 2 that we formed a committee to probe the incident of the meteorite fall in Thakurgaon. And it was on February 3 that we arrived at Singpara, Thakurgaon, to inspect the spot where it landed and take a look at the real object,” says Shahjahan Mridha Benu, a life member of the Anushandhitshu Chokro (AC) and Dr AR Khan, a renowned astronomer of Bangladesh was the convener of the Singpara meteorite investigation team. Other two members Naeem Ul Islam (Opu) - (General Secretary Astronomy Section, AC Science Organization), Ifteekhar Ayub (Pappu), (life member of AC Science Organization)
Though the probe team was promptly formed and the team members were eager to bring the meteorite to Dhaka for testing, the dilly dallying on the part of the Information and Communication Technology ministry made them wait for the rock to be transported to Dhaka, which took one month and one day. The committee members of the AC knew that the more time the rock spent in the atmosphere of the earth the more chance it had to lose its original characteristics. However, government officials were oblivious of such facts. As the coordinator of the probe committee Benu testifies that he went door to door to expedite the process of bringing the meteorite to Dhaka. “I met ministers and top officials and implored them to look into the matter,” remembers Benu who along with his team was worried over the fact that the cosmogenic radioactivity would not be found if the tests were not done quickly.
“Cosmogenic radioactivity is cosmic ray induced radioactivity which is essential to determine the actual size of the meteorite before it entered the atmosphere of the earth,” clarifies Khan, who feels that since it was the very first experience for all in Bangladesh a lot of things did not go according to plan. However, the delay in bringing the rock to Dhaka not only annoyed the members of the probe team, it also made many other scientists belonging to astronomical associations abroad speculate about the distance of Singpara from Dhaka.
“They were informed of the meteorite that had fallen at Singpara and were eager to know the results of the tests done on the meteorite. Since it was taking a lot of time to bring it to Dhaka, some of the foreign scientists had the impression that it was a remote village where transportation means was Spartan; they kept asking how many days it takes on a bull-cart to reach this village. It never occurred to them that red tape could cost so much time,” says Benu.
Once it arrived in Dhaka it was kept in an air-tight jar at the Science Museum. While the transportation of the rock from Thakurgaon to Dhaka took a little more than a month, the formation of a national probe committee took three months. Dr Moyeen Khan, Minister for Information, Communication and Technology, was made the co-ordinator of the group and A R Khan was made its convener.