Graveside scenes

Mourners with coffins gather at Azimpur graveyard for the burial of the dead after Juma prayers. At least 46 people who died in the devastating fire Thursday were buried by sundown yesterday. Photo: Rashed Shumon

Over a hundred graves were kept ready before noon at the Azimpur graveyard yesterday for the burial of fire victims, who met tragic end of their lives in a devastating fire at the capital's Old Dhaka Thursday night.
The staffs of the graveyard were waiting to receive the bodies. But their regular task became too difficult seeing the number of bodies that started to arrive from 12:00 noon.
“I never saw such huge number of dead bodies turning up together here,” said Mohammad Ashraf, who has been digging graves for the last 36 years at the graveyard.
A total of 30 grave-diggers started digging up over a hundred graves at 4:00 am in the morning and continued before noon as per the direction of Dhaka City Corporation authorities.
The bodies started coming at the graveyard from noon and the grave-diggers started burying them immediately amid heavy downpour.
Before sunset, as many as 46 dead bodies were buried at the northwest corner of the graveyard, several staffs of the graveyard told The Daily Star.
“I never saw burial of such huge number of people here after the Liberation War in 1971,” said Mona Mia, who has been digging graves there for last 40 years.
“It was unbearable. I can't describe the total scenario to you,” Mona replied in a choked voice.
“What will I say? The condition of my mind is not good,” said another grave-digger Faruk.
“Everybody was crying. We dug the graves in several rows on a spot,” he added.
A youth wearing white Pajama and Panjabi was not willing to leave the premises after burying his elder brother. He was wailing while his relatives were trying to take him away from the spot.
At the main entrance of the graveyard, this correspondent met Sabuj, an elder brother of a fire victim. As soon as the correspondent asked him about his presence there, he broke into tears.
“My younger brother was buried here,” he could not continue anymore.
The narrow roads inside the graveyard became crowded as locals and relatives of the victims rushed there to lay their near and dear ones to eternal rest.
The heart-rending cry of relatives filled the air of the area heavily.
At about 4:00pm, when as many as 42 bodies were buried, a group of grave-diggers sat in a corner of the new graves leaving their equipment aside. They were looking much tired than they really were.
“I never saw such number of dead bodies at a time here after the war of independence,” said Abdul Mannan, who prayed for the salvation of the departed souls on behalf of their families.
Many people helped the staff of the graveyard to finish the funeral of their near and dear ones.
Around 10 namaz-e-janazas were held before laying them to eternal rest.