Abandoned at morgue

Relatives abandoned the body of a garment worker, who committed suicide, at the Dhaka Medical College morgue yesterday saying they could not afford her burial cost.

Shahnaz, 18, lost her father around 10 years ago and mother around five years ago. She and her 12-year-old sister used to live with a distant grandfather in Uttar Manik Nagar in the capital.

She had an altercation with her boyfriend late Friday night and her body was recovered from the house around 1:45am yesterday. She had apparently hung herself from the ceiling fan, said Officer-in-Charge Enamul Huq of Mugda Police Station.

The OC told The Daily Star that after the autopsy he had asked her relatives to take the body but they requested him to hand it over to Anjuman Mofidul Islam, a charity organisation.

Talking to The Daily Star, Shahnaz's distant uncle Golam Hossain Golap, a resident of Gopibagh, said he was unable to take the body.

Asked why he doesn't contact the graveyards for her burial, he said it matters little who buries the body.

He said around Tk 2,500 was needed for the burial.

Golap said now it was up to the morgue to decide when the body would be given to Anjuman Mofidul Islam.

However, Golap said he would take the responsibility of Shahnaz's younger sister Shahinur, 12, a sixth-grader. “I will educate her like my own daughter,” he said.

Shahnaz used to pay for her sister's education.