More than 100 ill-fated victims of the Rana Plaza tragedy are likely to remain unidentified forever, as the second phase of the DNA sampling nears its end at the National DNA Profiling Laboratory in Dhaka Medical College.
Following the identification of 157 victims from the 322 unidentified bodies in the first phase of the process, laboratory chief Dr Sharif Akteruzzaman told the Dhaka Tribune: “Among the 165 [still] unidentified victims, we would finally be able to identify 50 to 60 of them.”
Although a total 548 DNA samples from victims’ relatives had been submitted to the laboratory against the 322 unidentified bodies, more than 100 victims’ DNA did not match with any submitted samples.
After the Rana Plaza collapse, more than 800 bodies were handed over to relatives without having any DNA samples kept from either the victims or the relatives – a procedure which Dr Akteruzzman said was unscientific.
“The Rana Plaza disaster was a new experience for us. So we failed to follow the principle rules,” he said.
The team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which came to install the Combined DNA Index System (Codis) at the DNA laboratory, also said the handover of bodies was inaccurate as no DNA sample had been collected. The handover of any dead body from the disaster is strictly prohibited in order to identify the unknown body.
“It’s possible that people received bodies without confirming the identity,” said Dr Akteruzzaman.
For example, he said four bodies – from which DNA had been collected for the lab – were taken and buried by people claiming to be those victims’ relatives, without completing any scientific identification procedure. It was later found that three of the four samples actually matched with DNA samples from other people who gave samples to the lab to find their missing relatives.
However, Dr Akteruzzaman said there was still some hope in identifying the 100 victims were the government to take an initiative in collecting DNA samples from each of the relatives who had earlier collected the bodies of the victims, as those samples could match with the 100 unidentified.
Most of those who remain unidentified are female.
With the DNA from 50 to 60 bodies already partially matched with relatives’ samples, the doctor said a supplementary chromosome (X and Y) test was needed to verify the relation between the victim and the person claiming to be the relative.
Although the laboratory was running low on chemical reagents to run the final test, the lab chief expressed hope that a supply of those reagents would reach their hands soon.
He informed that in most cases the relatives – who claimed their family member was missing – gave one sample for the DNA test. But to ensure the relationship, it was mandatory to collect samples from three people (victim/son/daughter).
At least 1,134 people were killed and thousands more were injured when the nine-storey Rana Plaza in Savar collapsed on April 24 this year.
Saturday 21 December 2013
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2013/dec/21/over-100-victims-remain-unidentified
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