The skeletal remains which were found with an ID card and a mobile phone in the Rana Plaza debris Friday belong to garment worker Obaidul, police primarily confirmed yesterday, after contacting the victim's relatives through the retrieved SIM card.
They, however, will send the remains alongside a skull, located about 50 feet away, for DNA tests to properly establish the identity, said Dipok Chandra Saha, inspector of Savar Model Police Station, as locals presume that the remains are of two persons.
On Friday night, police dialled a number saved in the SIM card as "Vial" (thought to be misspelt for "Via" meaning brother) and one Faruq Hossain replied from the other side identifying him as a cousin of Obaidul, said police. Faruq answered all their queries properly, they added.
The ID card shows that Obaidul was a sewing assistant at New Wave Bottoms garment factory on the second floor of the nine-storey Rana Plaza, which crumbled eight months ago, on April 24, killing at least 1,134 people and wounding and maiming several hundred. According to the army, which led the rescue mission, 159 victims are still unidentified or missing.
Four street boys came across the skull while scavenging in the pile of concrete about 10-12 feet high by the side of the Rana Plaza site. Later, they spotted a protruding pant and pulled it out to find some 20-25 bones, the ID card and the phone.
Talking to The Daily Star, Md Hafizul Islam, initially confirmed as Obaidul's father and resident of Dakirkanda of Tarakanda, Mymensingh, pronounced his son's name as Abadul.
Obaidul's name was on the list of 159 unidentified victims, whose families received financial assistance, distributed by the army, on December 6, he said.