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Savar search wrapped up

Death count drops to 61, relatives refuse to give up, arrest warrant issued against owner, Rajuk probe team visits spot

PINAKI ROY
Rescuers officially ended their search for bodies in the sweater factory collapse in Savar at 11:00am yesterday, almost nine days after the country's deadliest building collapse on April 11, but relatives refused to give up searching for the missing.
The army search coordinators mysteriously downed the death figure to 61 from 74 yesterday, saying the previous count was wrong. They also claimed that there was no-one missing. Until the day before yesterday, the figure of the dead and missing was put on the official notice board at 74 and 97 respectively.
Rescuers yesterday did not find any body on the ground floor after clearing the debris.
"Thank God we have successfully finished the rescue operation and not a single inch is left to be searched for any survivors or dead bodies. All the debris was removed," said Brigadier General Nizam Ahmed, who coordinated the rescue operations.
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"There were some repetitions of names as several relatives of the same victim used different names on the missing list, increasing the total," said Nizam. "Even many relatives did not inform us that their missing relatives returned home."
"The Savar Police Station counted every body while handing them over to their relatives, and according to them, the figure was 59 and we heard one more died at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and another in Gazipur," he added.
Army chief Hasan Mashud Chowdhury and General Officer Commanding of Savar Cantonment Aminul Karim Chowdhury visited the site yesterday to inspect the rescue operation. Police were deployed around the scene yesterday to look after the factory and its recovered goods.
The Army, Fire Brigade and Civil Defence and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) launched rescue works immediately after the building crumbled 'like a house of cards'.
Until the third day of the rescue efforts, 85 people were pulled out alive from the ruins and it was initially believed that scores of bodies would be retrieved on the last day of the operations. But bodies were pulled out from the heap of rubble for the last time on Sunday and those were too mutilated to be identified.
Some 1,500 rescuers from the army and fire service completed the rescue operation. Medical teams from Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Gonoshasthya, the Savar Health Surgeon's Office, the Savar and Dhamrai health complexes, and the district administration provided first aid during the operation. The BGMEA and the deputy commissioner of Dhaka gave Tk 4,000 and Tk 2,000 to the families of the dead.
Nazrul Islam, the office-in-charge (OC) of Savar Police Station, filed a case against Mohammed Shariar and Abul Hashem, the owners of the collapsed garment factory on April 11. The next day, the case was transferred to the Detective Branch of Police.
Khorshed Alam, the investigating officer of the case, informed The Daily Star that a lower court magistrate on April 17 issued an warrant for the arrest of Shariar by the Gulshan Police Station, as he has gone into hiding since the incident.
Savar police took over the site immediately after the rescuers wound up their operations yesterday morning.
"We will seal the place and guard the site until further direction. We have been seeking a magistrate who will make a list of the equipment and garments and other things remaining there," said Nazrul Islam.
"People came and told us about their relatives after the factory collapse but when they found them they
did not inform us, which is why the figure of missing people rose so much. But we had the entire site checked by sniffer dogs and found no more bodies," Brigadier General Nizam said.
The deadliest building collapse in the country's accident-prone garment industry took place at Palashbari in Savar on April 12 due to the factory's faulty construction on filled-in low-lands, trapping nearly 200 workers who were doing the night shift.
Police drove the crowd of relatives away from the site, telling them that the rescue operation was over and that there was no chance of retrieving more bodies. But relatives of at least five missing persons were still standing near the scene with blood-shot, swollen eyes, hoping against hope that the bodies of the near and dear ones would be found.
Asma Begum was waiting there with a photograph of her son-in-law Abdul Kadir and asking around whether anyone had seen him. A few feet from Asma, Maleka Begum and Chan Mia, parents of Rubel, were not willing to speak to anybody but were pacing to and fro, as they did not find their son.
Rezaul, nephew of Lovelu, Farukh, son of Anawar Hossain, and Rabin, son of Uzir Ali, were still missing. Relatives of Anwar Hossain and Iman Hossain also found no trace of them.
"We have handed over six unclaimed bodies to the Anjuman Mofidul Islam. Those may be relatives of them," said the Savar police OC.
The inquiry team of Rajuk, composed of teachers from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), yesterday visited the spot to investigate the reason for the collapse. Md Nasir Uddin, member, planning of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) told The Daily Star at the site that none of the owners met Rajuk officials with papers on the building approval although authorities had asked them to do so on April 14.
"The building was overweight by at least 72 tons," said one of the members of the inquiry team, requesting anonymity.
"The design of households and industry should be different. [The owners] should have conducted a soil test before putting up the structure," said Dr AFM Saiful Amin, a Buet teacher who has been working with the expert team.
Babul Hossain, who has been working with the Spectrum Sweaters Ltd. since it was built one and a half years ago, told The Daily Star that the factory building used to vibrate when machines were on. He believed the heavy machinery installed on each floor of the building could have made the building collapse by their sheer weight.