Ctg fire: Relatives’ desperate search for missing ones

Md Alauddin, brother of a missing crane operator at the BM depot container terminal in Sitakunda of Chattogram, has been rushing from hospital to hospital for eight days to find any trace of his brother.

He has also given samples of his DNA, but it seems his brother Md Monir Hossain has vanished, said Alauddin, talking to The Business Standard recently.   

Not only Monir Hossain's brother but also relatives of many other missing persons from the depot have been running from hospital to hospital to find their loved ones, as many as eight days after the fire incident.

However, the district administration, police or fire service has no list of missing persons.

Officials at The Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) forensic lab said 44 relatives have given their DNA samples, while according to the CID itself, 24 people were missing as of Sunday afternoon.

However, there are 19 bodies, which could not be identified, so five more bodies are yet to be found, according to the officials.

The bodies were so badly burnt, it was not possible to ascertain identities without DNA tests, they said.

Jahangir Alam, Chattogram CID additional police superintendent, told The Business Standard, "The number of missing persons has been increasing day by day. I am afraid this number will increase further."

DNA sampling of the bodies has already started in Dhaka, he went on to say. He said the DNA samples of relatives will be matched with the DNA of the victims of the fire.

"Relatives may have to wait for a month to get DNA reports," said Jahangir Alam.

He added, "If any relatives have not been able to give DNA samples, they can contact the Chattogram office directly or they can go to the CID forensic lab in Dhaka and give samples."

Three fire service personnel have also gone missing in the Sitakunda blast. They are Imran Hossain Majumder, leader of Kumira fire station, firefighter Shafiul Islam and firefighter Fariduzzaman of Sitakunda station.

A burnt body recovered from the spot has also been confirmed to be a fire service e

mployee, but his identity has not yet been ascertained.

Some stories of missing persons

Housewife Nazma Begum from Noakhali has almost gone mad after losing her husband in the fire. She has been going to the CMCH every day in search of her husband, depot employee Mozammel.

Nazma says the body of her husband is in the hospital freezer and that hospital authorities are not giving it to her.

"The number of missing persons has been increasing day by day. I am afraid this number will increase further."

Jahangir Alam, additional police superintendent, Chattogram CID

However, according to Alauddin Talukder, assistant sub-inspector of Chattogram Medical College Hospital police outpost, all told, "Nineteen unidentified bodies are in the refrigerators of CMCH, Ever Care Hospital, and CMH Hospital and that no corpse can be given to anybody without confirming their identity because there are many relatives laying claim to a deceased person's body." 

Just two hours before the explosion, two friends -- Abul Hashem and Md Shahjahan -- entered the BM container depot with covered vans.

Shahjahan's car was unloaded during the fire but Hashem's one was not. So Shahjahan was waiting for his friend but the two friends have been missing since the horrific explosion.

Missing Abul Hashem's nephew Belal said, "Mama (maternal uncle) was supposed to come to Kumira's house for dinner with us after unloading the goods at the depot. After the fire broke out, he told us to have our dinner without him because he would be too late. Sadly, we did not eat and he never came back."

Both of the friends were drivers for Nusrat Logistics.

"We were shown the bodies at Chattogram Medical College Hospital but there was no way to identify whose body it was," said Belal.

Abul Hashem's father and his sister gave their DNA samples.

Covered van helper Md Shakib has been missing too. His elder brother Abdul Hannan says Shakib entered the depot with his car just half an hour before the accident. No trace of him has been found since then. No authorities – not the police, nor the district administration or Shakib's employer – could provide the family with any news.

Shakib's body was not found in the hospital, said Hannan.

They have been searching the areas adjacent to the depot and all the wards of the CMCH since the day after the incident.

"No one has contacted us either," Hannan said.

Crane Operator Ripon, who witnessed the incident, said none of the operators agreed to move the container because of the fire.

However, at the request of depot officials, the operators eventually began removing the containers.

Two LFD operators were killed in the first blast, said Ripon.

In fact, it would be difficult to identify their bodies, Ripon added.

Last, on 8 June, fire service personnel recovered a skull and a part of a person's leg from the scene while two more people injured in the explosion, died on Sunday.

They are Gausul Azam, a firefighter, and Nurul Quader, an employee of the depot's mechanical department.

Including them, the death toll now rises to 48.