Even though Amin Mohammad Foundation officials claimed that the flaws were minor and a "silly issue" had been prioritised, experts said the design of the building was terribly flawed.

As the developers of the building started rectifying the flaws of the building, the guardians of the school children panicked and urged the school authorities to move the section.

Amin Mohammad Foundation started the rectifying work on the six-storey building five months after the flat owners on January complained about cracks developing in the ceilings and walls. They sent a written complaint on February 13.

The flat owners filed a general diary on May 20 with Dhanmondi Police Station fearing the building might collapse. One of the flat owners complained that the Amin Mohammad Foundation took the rectifying job into consideration after a very long delay.

"Every day we were finding new cracks, even while the Shahidullah Associates were conducting their probe, we found new cracks in the walls and ceilings," an owner of a flat said requesting anonymity.

Amin Mohammad Foundation had hired Shahidullah Associates to probe the issues of the building.

Engineer FM Shahidullah, managing director of Shahidullah Associates, after investigation observed that the design of the building was terribly flawed and the construction firm tried to save money by not using as many iron rods that were required.

"The architects were not competent enough. The slab was hanging a bit from the ceiling…though not significantly but enough to create concern among the inhabitants," Shahidullah told The Daily Star. The thickness of the slab was less than what was necessary, he added.

Effect Architect Planners & Engineers did the design job for Amin Mohammad Foundation. On behalf of its Managing Director Kazi AI Swapan, his brother Kazi Touhidul Islam admitted that there were flaws in the design.

"It is not unusual, sometimes there could be some faults in designs. The placement of rods were not proper but the faults can be rectified," he said.

Md Shahidul Haque, general manager (planning, monitoring and co-ordination) of Amin Mohammad Foundation, at the building site quoted Dr Ali Mortuza of Bureau of Research Testing and Consultation (BRTC) of BUET as saying, "90 percent buildings of the city may collapse in an earthquake but this building will remain standing."

However, Shahidullah differed saying the building would gradually have permanent damage and would not be able to endure any earthquakes.

When The Daily Star contacted the Dr Ali Mortuza, he declined to comment and said the reporters were exaggerating a silly issue.

The BRTC after investigation submitted a report on March 19, 2007 to Amin Mohammad Foundation that said the slab top steel has more cover than required (which reduced the slab's moment capacity), and the problem was due to design fault like less slab thickness, less steel used than required and inadequate size of columns for lateral loads.

It also gave guidelines that props/support fixing shall be made of structural sections or tubular steel of adequate capacity to be able to resist total load of all upper storeys, sequence of props/support fixing would be from the lowest to the uppermost storey and the column-jacketing and beam-casting would be from lowest to uppermost storey.

The six-storey building was built in 2005. The owners had to pay Tk 2,200 per square feet for the 2,000 square feet flat.

Syed Telayet Hossain, executive director Amin Mohammad Foundation said, "An evil quarter is orchestrating things from behind the scene and is trying to create panic among the people."

Amin Mohammad Foundation officials tried to discourage The Daily Star correspondent and its photographer from reporting on the issue saying one reporter of Bangla daily Samakal was sacked for running incorrect and exaggerated story about this.

Talking to The Daily Star, Media Manager Shahadat Hossain of Amin Mohammad Foundation narrated the background of the foundation and said, "Of the 50 apartment buildings the company made, only one is faulty. This is not much."

Meanwhile, a press release of the Amin Mohammad group said the news report that the six-storey building has tilted is not true. The building is not in imminent danger at all and it is completely inhabitable.