A family weighed down by loss

He did not know his three-year-old daughter had already been buried.
Shuvo, who suffered severe burns in Thursday's blaze in Old Dhaka, ended up in hospital. He was lying on the corridor of the Burn and Plastic Surgery unit at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH).
Unaware of the death of his daughter Samira, he wanted to know about her condition.
“Where is my daughter...how is she? Please bring her to me,” Shuvo asked repeatedly whenever he woke up from sleep as doctors gave him sedatives to reduce pain.
While he was totally oblivious to his great loss, his son Sunny was completing Samira's burial at Azimpur graveyard around 3:30pm yesterday.
Sunny and Shuvo's another son Shakil were left unharmed by the blaze as they were outside.
Shuvo is not even aware of the condition of his wife Shahida who got major portion of her body burnt. Shakil was attending his mother at Combined Medical Hospital (CMH).
When the fire broke out at Nawab Katra Road, Shuvo, an employee of Dhaka City Corporation, was along with his daughter and wife on the first floor of one of the eight buildings that were gutted by the fire.
Shuvo pushed his wife and daughter under a cot when flames started engulfing their flat and he himself took shelter under a table, said his niece Parul Akhter.
They were unconscious when their little girl was burnt alive.
After regaining sense at the hospital, Shuvo enquired about his daughter and wife. He was informed that they had received minor injuries and were at a relative's house.
On the same corridor lies Mamun, another ill-fated father who did not know about his seven-year-old daughter's death in the fire. He is a fruit seller at Nimtoli.
He was groaning in pain due to burns in his chest and head.
While visiting the burn unit in the afternoon, this correspondent found 12 victims lying on the corridor. Several victims alleged that doctors were not available.
Burn unit head Dr Shahidul Bari said over two hundred victims received treatment since Thursday night, and around 26 were undergoing treatment at that time.