37 Tazreen workers still missing
A writ petition submitted to the High Court has claimed that 37 garment workers are still missing since the deadly Tazreen fire on November 24 last year.
After the hearing on the petition yesterday, the High Court directed the inspector general of police to get DNA tests of the relatives of the missing people done and to submit a report to it on June 19.
The home ministry and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in December last year said the inferno at Tazreen Fashions Ltd in Ashulia had killed at least 112 people and injured many others.
Anthropologists Naznin Akter Banu, Saydia Gulrukh Kamal and Mahmudul Hasan Sumon on April 28 filed the petition with the HC along with a list of the names and addresses of the 37 missing people. They sought directives on the government to arrest the owner of the Tazreen garment, Delwar Hossain, and punish him.
Jyotirmoy Barua, a lawyer for the petitioners, said his clients had collected the names of the missing people from their relatives.
Yesterday, the court expressed dissatisfaction over the home ministry's failure to submit a probe report on the inferno even after it had been given time twice. The HC said the government must submit the report on June 19 and action would be taken against the people responsible otherwise.
The home ministry a day after the Tazreen fire formed a committee to investigate the incident and prepare a report, Jyotirmoy said.
On May 30, the court directed the government to submit the probe report yesterday as it failed to submit it on that day as per an earlier court order.
Assistant Attorney General Jahangir Alam yesterday prayed to the court for two more days for the submission of the report.
He, however, told The Daily Star that Deputy Attorney General Bishwojit Roy had already received a copy of the home ministry's probe report in regard to another case and that this report would be submitted to the HC on the basis of an affidavit.
DAG Roy was not in court yesterday owing to matters of a personal nature, he added.
Delwar appeared before the court yesterday as per its May 30 order. The HC bench of Justice Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and Justice ABM Altaf Hossain asked him to appear again in court on June 19.
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