Families kept in wait, still

For the last one year, all the five women had was hope.

They went on hoping that the remains of their beloved husbands, who lost their lives in a boiler explosion at Tampaco Foils Limited in Tongi on this day in 2016, would be identified soon.

But their wait seemed to have gone in vain as the remains of their dear ones -- the bones -- used for DNA tests to identify the bodies have apparently become useless.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is conducting the DNA tests. They have asked for more bones from police for the profiling as some of those are badly burnt due to the explosion and almost impossible to conduct tests upon.

“How many more days do we have to wait?” questioned the bereaved family members.

The victims are Azim Uddin, Masum, Anisur Rahman, Jahirul Islam and Joynal Abedin.

On this day in 2016, 41 people were killed and 33 others injured as the packaging factory in BSCIC industrial area of Tongi in Gazipur city collapsed following a boiler explosion three days ahead of Eid-ul-Azha. The five are on the missing list.

The CID officials said some of the bones were badly burnt; it will be difficult to run the DNA tests. That is why they have asked for extra bones.

Initially, nine of the bodies could not be identified. Through the DNA profiling, four of those were identified, they added.

Rupali Begum, wife of one of the victim Masum, said, “It has been a year, we are yet to get any result.”

Nurunnahar, wife of another victim Jahirul, echoed her. “We just want to give him a proper burial.”

Parvin Aktar, wife of Azim, said, “I'm tired of waiting. I don't know how many years it will take to identify my husband.”

Joynal's brother Moinul Islam said the first phase of the DNA test ended last March. “We're told that the test is now in the second phase,” he said.

Contacted, Ahmed Ferdous of CID's DNA lab said they have given DNA test reports of some of the bodies. “Some of the bones were burnt badly. It's not possible to conduct tests with those.”

“We've sought for more bones from police. Upon getting those, we will be able to complete the profiling by this month,” Ferdous said yesterday.