Even 18 days after the collapse of Rana Plaza, hundreds of family members and relatives of the missing are gathering at Savar and waiting for another “Reshma miracle.”
Passing the whole day near the collapsed Rana Plaza at the Savar bus stand, some of them went to the Savar Ahurchandra High School, with the hope to get the mangled bodies of their dear ones. As bodies arrived at the school playground in the Dhaka City Corporation’s Hospital Waste Management van, expectant family members rushed in, even before volunteers could unload the bodies.
In some cases, more than one family claimed a heavily decomposed body, delaying the process of handing over the bodies to the relatives.
Nurjahan, wife of one Abdul Hai, currently living in the Boktarpur area of Savar, was working at Rana Plaza, but her shocked family members neither found her alive, nor got her dead body. They have been looking in each and every possible place, including different hospitals and morgues, for the past eighteen days.
Sakib, a garment worker of Al Muslim Garment at Razzak Plaza in Savar, was carefully checking the bodies to identify her mother, incidentally also named Nurjahan.
Piara Begum, an elderly lady, was claiming the body as her missing daughter Nurjahan, but Sakib was also claiming the body as his missing mother.
Sensing trouble between the two family members over one body, volunteers of the Dhaka District Administration’s control room requested the two family members not to quarrel over such a sensitive issue.
Later, rover scout members brought them to the officials who asked them to show necessary evidence in support of their claim on the body.
Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner (land acquisition), said: “If the two families fail to show proper evidence, we will send the body to the hospital morgue.”
“We will hand over the body to the family whose DNA sample matches that of the body,” the ADC said, adding, “If no DNA sample is matched, the body will be handed over to the Anjuman Mofidul Islam for burial at the capital’s Goran graveyard.”
Like Md Hafuzul Islam, who rushed to Savar along with his two younger brothers, Harun-ur-Rashid, a rickshaw puller, and Mofidul Islam, many other people were waiting for another Reshma miracle to happen.
“Before the rescue of Reshma, we were waiting here only to get the body of my elder son Ebadul,” Hafizul said, adding, “But now we are praying to get back our son alive like Reshma.”
“Since the Almighty saved the life of Reshma, He could also save the life of my son,” said the middle-aged man.
“My wife Ambia has broken down after the terrible incident,” he added.
Like Hafiz, family members of Lipi, a swing operator, daughter of one Md Abdul Mannan, and father of Jadab Das, another RMG worker, did not stop searching for their missing loved ones.
Crying loudly, Madhab Das, Jadab’s father, said: “My son married just five months ago. The Rana Plaza incident did not only kill my son, it also killed the dreams of two family members, including the newly married girl Mitali.”
Local people were distributing food three times a day among the waiting relatives at the school playground and the school authorities also opened some classrooms for the family members to take shelter during spells of rain.
-With The Independent input
