Relatives crowd DMCH with ‘hope’

Momtaz handed over her six-month old daughter Amena to her brother and entered the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue to identify her husband Ali Hossain’s body.

Hossain used to work as an operator in a garment factory located on the 3rd floor of Rana Plaza. He, like hundreds of others, had been missing since the building caved in on Wednesday morning.

Bodies recovered from the debris are first taken to the Adhar Chandra High School grounds in Savar for their relatives to identify. Those who could not be identified there are sent to the DMCH morgue.

Momtaz came to the hospital, like numerous others, looking for their loved ones.

The putrid smell of rotting corpses was making it difficult to stay near the morgue. Amid the chaos, Momtaz told bdnews24.com, “Someone found his (her husband) mobile in his pocket and got my number from there. He was identified with the help of his ID card and cell phone.”

She recounted the short-lived joy she experienced when she saw the call coming from her husband’s number, which made her believe that he was still alive. But all hopes shattered within moments as she heard an unknown voice requesting her to hurry to the hospital.

However, Momtaz still had hopes of seeing her husband alive. “I was a little afraid at the start but I immediately told myself that he must be among the injured. But when I got in here, I became sure that my husband will never call me again.”

“I received the call at around Thursday evening. I came here this morning (Friday) and police asked me to identify myself. I told them there are pictures of me and my daughter in my husband’s cell phone. Police first matched the pictures and then asked me to identify his dead body,” she said.

“They handed me his moneybag and cell phone,” Momtaz said.

Others were also crowding the hospital in search of their loved ones. One of them, Monir, had come to look for his sister Rehana, who was employed as an operator on the 3rd floor of Rana Plaza.

“I looked for my sister everywhere including the hospitals in Savar. But I could not locate her. I don’t know if my sister is alive or dead.”

Abdus Sattar arrived from Lalbagh to find his brother Noor Islam who used to work in a garment factory on the 2nd floor of the building. Jewel came from Sirajganj looking for his cousins Zakir and Mumtaz, who worked in the factory on the 3rd floor.

The Dhaka district administration has set up two information centres at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, one in front of its emergency unit and the other near the morgue.

“We listed 31 dead bodies until Friday noon at the morgue. Eight families have so far been able to identify and claim bodies,” said Assistant Commissioner, Land (Gulshan) and Dhaka district Executive Magistrate Syed Shariful Islam.

So far, 35 victims of the collapse have been admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, of whom two died.

Islam said the district administration had provided the injured with Tk 5,000 each and Tk 20,000 each to families of the deceased to perform their last rites.

Rana Plaza collapsed with approximately 3,000 people inside on Wednesday, leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises to take place in the recent times.

A day before the collapse, the industrial police and the local administration had spotted a crack in the building. They had asked the building owner and the authorities of the five garments factories to suspend operations until further notice.

The owners reportedly ignored the warning and forced the workers into the building.

Locals said nearly 3,500 people were at work in the factories when the building caved in.

Fire Service and Civil Defence, Police, BGB and RAB personnel have been conducting the rescue operation under the coordination of the Armed Forces and active involvement of the local good Samaritans.