Five months after the Baldia factory blaze, the bodies of 17 unidentified victims were buried at the KMC graveyard near the Hub River Road on Sunday.
According to court orders, government officials had allotted a serial number to every body at the Edhi morgue so that when the DNA reports arrived, they could be identified. But the DNA reports never arrived.
“Seventeen coffins contain bodies. And one only body parts,” said Anwar Kazmi of the Edhi Foundation as volunteers put the sealed coffins in ambulances.
The coffins were taken to a ground in Baldia Town for the funeral rites and then to the government graveyard for burial.
The victims’ graves do not have tombstones with their names, but the serial numbers they were allotted.
The burial could have been carried out months ago if only the government had paid a little attention to the crisis, said Abdul Sattar Edhi, the founder of the Edhi Foundation.
“We live in a poverty-struck country. If people lose someone here, they mourn and protest to an extent. After that, they give up and move on. What else can they do?” he said.
Kader lost his younger brother in the fire. He was 17 years old and his body was never found. “My mother cried for months. But she has given up now. She has accepted that he is no more,” said Kader. “I can only hope that he is in one of these coffins.”
The elderly Muhammad Sharif lost his 21-year-old son Muhammad Hanif in the fire and is still waiting for the body. He has not been compensated as well.
Sharif attended the mass burial hoping that his son’s body was among the bodies of the unidentified victims.
He said Hanif had started working at the factory four months before the fire. Hanif also had a speech impairment.
Sharif had provided his DNA samples twice, but was told that the samples did not match any of the bodies at the mortuary.
His two daughters also have a speech impairment like their deceased brother. Sharif himself has some orthopaedic problems, which have rendered him unable to work.
He approached many government functionaries to be compensated as per the announcement, but was told he needed his son’s body before he could be compensated.
When Sharif approached the Saylani Welfare Trust and the Alamgir Welfare Trust, they assured him that they would provide his family with ration for a month.
Another victim Muhammad Akmal is survived by three minor sons: 10-year-old Hamza, eight-year-old Mubin and two-year-old Ahmed.
The sons also attended the mass burial wondering if they would ever see their father’s body. Akmal had been working at the factory as a supervisor and was employed there for eight years.
After the fire, his widow and their three sons have been waiting to identify his body, but the government has failed them.
They have not been paid a single paisa as compensation so far and their relatives have already spent between Rs40,000 and Rs50,000 on travelling and other expenses as per the government’s requirements for being compensated.
National Trade Union Federation Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor said these affectees had faced a lot of difficulties during the lengthy and inhuman process.
He said the bodies buried on Sunday were unclaimed and there were still 25 to 30 victims’ families who had provided their DNA samples, but were not handed over the bodies.
He said that the government’s tenure would end soon and then the caretaker setup would take over, which would only focus on holding the elections and the fire victims’ issues would be forgotten.
A German delegation of trade unionists, led by Thomas Seibert, also attended the mass burial to express solidarity with the victims’ families.
On September 11 last year, a fire had erupted at Ali Enterprises and claimed the lives of around 300 workers.
The federal government, the head of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and a noted builder had announced compensation for each affected family, but only those affectees were compensated who had identified the bodies.
Most victims were identified by their clothes or the contents of their pockets because their faces had been burnt beyond recognition. The 17 bodies buried on Sunday were kept at the Edhi morgue, as their DNA samples had been sent to Islamabad. Considering the delay in receiving the DNA reports, the court had ordered that the bodies be buried.
Monday 25 February 2013
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-161933-Hoping-for-closure-families-bury-unide
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