Families of nine victims yet to get bodies

It has been around four months, but the wounds in the mind of the family members of the nine unidentified people, who lost their lives in a boiler explosion at Tampaco Foils Ltd factory in Tongi, are still fresh.

In hope and despair, they still wait to get the bodies as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is yet to complete the DNA test to identify the bodies.

“For how many days will I have to wait to get my husband's body? How long can a person hold back grief?” said Parvin Aktar, wife of missing worker Azim Uddin.

“Give me at least a bone of my husband's body. I will bury it and show my children their father's grave,” said Sharmin Aktar Shilpi, wife of Anisur Rahman, a missing machine operator at Tampaco.

“We could not understand what to do. How long does it take to identify a body?” said a crying Rupali Begum, wife of another missing machine operator Masum Ahmed.

Thirty-nine people were killed and 40 others injured as the packaging factory in BSCIC industrial area of Tongi in Gazipur city collapsed following a big explosion and fire on September 10, three days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

On September 21, relatives of the nine unidentified persons gave blood and saliva samples at CID headquarters for DNA tests to identify their dear ones.

Wishing anonymity, a CID official on December 27 said they had completed the laboratory work. “Now, we're doing procedural tasks which will take additional 10 to 15 days,” the official said.

Two separate cases were filed against seven people, including the owner of Tampaco Syed Moqbul Hossain and his wife, with Tongi Police Station two days after the incident.

Of them, five including Managing Director Syed Tanvir Hossain, General Manager Safikur Rahman, Deputy General Manager Safius Sami Alamgir, Manager (admin) Moniruzzaman, and Manager (admin and law) Abu Hanif are now in jail.

Moqbul and his wife, however, are on bail.