Missing in Gazi factory fire: Families waiting for closure amid admin’s apathy

Whenever Amena Begum gets a call from an unknown number, she hopes it would be about her son or younger brother, both of whom went missing when a tyre factory in Narayanganj went up in flames on August 25.
Twenty-six-year-old Apu Mia was her only child. When she heard late at night that he went to the Gazi Tyres factory in Rupganj where a fire was raging, she called him and found his phone unreachable. She then told her younger brother Nazrul Islam, 40, to go look for Apu.
Both Nazrul and Apu worked at a knitting factory in Rupganj.
Near midnight on August 25, she found Nazrul’s phone switched off too.
The blaze at the massive six-storey building, some floors of which have more than 62,000 square feet space, was doused after five days of continuous efforts by firefighters. The top three floors had caved in by then.
Based on the accounts of the families looking for their loved ones, Narayanganj district administration made a list of 182 people, including women and children, who went missing during the fire incident.
But the government has not yet taken any visible steps to find them or find the human remainsfrom the rubble in two months.
“I think my son and brother are dead. I just wish I could see their bodies and hold a funeral for them,” said Amena.
Her husband Omar Ali is a labourer and the family lives in a rented room at a slum in the Barabo area of Rupganj. Apu’s earning was a major support for the family.
This correspondent contacted 32 families of the missing persons and visited some of their homes. Most of these families, who live a hand-to-mouth existence, have lost the breadwinner.
Three families said they held funerals for their loved ones, losing all hope of finding the bodies. Some said they could no longer afford to live in the city and have returned to their villages.
All of them said the government has conveniently put the matter under the rug.
Narayanganj Deputy Commissioner Mahmudul Haque said the building was too risky now and may collapse anytime.
“As per recommendations from engineers, we restricted entry to the premises,” he said.
He has written a letter to the police, requesting verification of the list of 182 missing persons. “Police will also look into why those people entered the factory that day. It will take time.”
Government and company officials said they have yet to decide what to do about the rickety building.
On September 1, several family members entered the building, defying restrictions. They climbed up to the third floor, risking their lives, and found charred remains of what looked like human bodies. The police received the remains from them.
Pratyush Kumar Majumdar, superintendent of police in Narayanganj, said the Criminal Investigation Department was analysing the DNA samples of the remains. Experts will first detect whether these are human remains. Matching the DNA with the families will begin later.
An officer, requesting anonymity, said such procedures take weeks because of the workload and inadequate facilities for such tests.
CHAOS AND MAYHEM
After the Awami League government fell on August 5, hundreds of locals began to attack the factory owned by Golam Dastagir Gazi who was a minister of the AL government.
Amid the absence of law enforcers, large groups of people looted the factory, which used to employ over 2,000 workers, until August 8, according to an investigation by a committee of the administration.
The factory authorities then hired a group of locals to guard the facility against looting. On August 25, more than half of those guards left, saying they were not being paid by the owners. That was also the day Dastagir was arrested in Dhaka on murder charges.
As the day progressed, unidentified locals using loudspeakers of a local mosque urged people to gather in front of the factory. “The factory was built on your land. Reclaim it now,” said the announcer.
By 3:00pm, the crowd in front of the facility was uncontrollable. Around 4:30pm, large unruly crowds entered the building and looted whenever they could find. All the employees had left, sensing danger. Clashes among the intruders were also reported. Around 10:30pm, a fire was seen on the ground floor and the gate was locked from outside. The people on the upper stories had no way of escaping. Electricity and gas connections to the facility had already been cut, says the probe report, adding that a group had deliberately set it on fire.
As there were flammable goods all over the building, the fire continued to rage for days.
Firefighters wrapped up the operation on August 30 without conducting a rescue operation amid warnings from civil engineers that the structure may collapse any time.
Liaqat Ali, officer-in-charge of Rupganj Police Station, said police were looking for the arsonists, as the factory authorities filed two cases.
Two families filed separate general diaries about their missing members.
THE HUMAN TOLL
Every two or three days, Amena walks from her home to the factory gate  and keeps looking at the building, as though it were her son and brother’s grave.
“What else is there to do?” asks the grieving mother.
Asma Khatun, a resident of the Borabo area, said she lost three members of her family: her husband Sujan Mia, 28, sister-in-law Mafia Begum, 30, and brother-in-law Ratan Mia, 35.
“I can’t bear to look at my children’s faces.”
Rafiur Rabbi, senior vice-president of Narayanganj Nagorik Committee, said, “It is definitely a failure of this government that a proper report on missing persons has not been released. They cannot shirk their responsibility. They should have been more responsible in this regard.”