Burial mix-up
2 Nepal crash victims laid to rest in wrong graves; court orders exhumation
After the bodies of Boishakhi Television journalist Ahmed Faisal and Ms Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, two victims of the US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu, were brought to the country, a mix-up occurred. The two bodies ended up being buried in the wrong burial sites as the coffins seemed to have been bearing the wrong names.
The families of both victims appealed for exhumation of the bodies.
A Dhaka court yesterday ordered the exhumation of the body of Ahmed Faisal from Banani graveyard in the presence of an executive magistrate.
The petition for the court appeal submitted by Faisal's younger brother Saiful Islam on April 3 said that the coffin bearing the name of Ahmed Faisal was received by his maternal uncle Md Kaikobad and taken to his village in Shariatpur for burial.
After the namaz-e-janaza, prayers and the paying of final respect by the villagers, the body was taken out of the coffin to be laid to rest. As Faisal's brother and uncle took the body out, they found that the body was not of Faisal's, and the polythene it was wrapped in bore the name 'Ms. Nazia Afrin Chowdhury'.
With thousands of people, including Faisal's family, relatives and several hundred villagers, attending the funeral, they didn't announce the mix-up and instead buried Nazia Afrin's body at Faisal's village in Dakshin Damudya that day.
They later contacted Nazia's family and they were both convinced that Faisal's body was buried in Banani graveyard, where Nazia's body was to be buried.
Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sheikh Hafizur Rahman passed the order after hearing the petition submitted by Faisal's younger brother Saiful.
The court also ordered Dhaka district magistrate to take necessary action to exhume the body in presence of an executive magistrate and hand it over to his family at Damudya in Shariatpur, after identification.
A separate petition was submitted before the chief judicial magistrate's court in Shariatpur yesterday by Ali Ahad Chowdhury, Nazia Afrin's brother. The hearing of the petition will be held today.
At least 27 Bangladeshis including Ahmed Faisal and Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, and 48 others, were killed in the US-Bangla plane crash at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.