Needed: space for the dead

As bodies continue to pile up with violence in Karachi showing no sign of abating, every inch of the Edhi morgue’s cold storage in Sohrab Goth is precious, to say the least.

But for the past two months, the bodies of 28 victims of the Baldia garments factory fire have been lying in the morgue, which is causing immense space constraints at the city’s only public mortuary, say morgue officials.

“Here we can store up to 220 bodies at a time, and bodies from across the city flood in here every day — from road accidents to killings, to unknown bodies to even natural deaths for funeral preparations,” says Mohammad Mushtaq, the in-charge of the morgue.

According to Jahanzaib Khan, the investigation officer (IO) of the fire incident, which occurred on September 11, the bodies are awaiting DNA tests, and then will be handed over to the families.

“We sent the samples of the remaining bodies to Islamabad two weeks after the incident and have been waiting ever since. The families are also restless to bury their loved ones. The case now lies in the capital; the police have done their bit.”

An Edhi official says the bodies are beyond recognition and they do not know what to do with them. The families, he says, are not squeezing the authorities for the results, another factor causing the delay.

“The relatives of the victims seem quite passive on the issue, as the authorities are taking an endless time and nobody is making any noise,” says Amanullah, the head of Edhi Centre in Sohrab Goth.

According to the standard procedure, the Edhi morgue does not keep an unclaimed body for more than three days. It buries it with a tag number in the Edhi graveyard on the outskirt of the city if nobody turns up in three days.

“Usually, we take a picture and issue a tag number to the body before burying it,” says Amanullah. “If a claimant arrives after the burial we give him the tag number so they can track it in the Edhi graveyard in Moach Goth on the outskirts.”

“But in this case we cannot bury them as per our standard procedure, because that might hurt the emotions of the family members,” he explains.

Another factor which is holding back the Edhi morgue official from burying the bodies is the problem of recognition. The faces are beyond identification and getting worse by the day, which only leaves the officials with the option of a DNA test alone.

“The faces have melted. So even if we bury the bodies, taking pictures, they won’t be of any help,” says Mushtaq.

He cautions that the bodies are rotting bit by bit, as the morgue often suffers power outages and the storage is not in the best of conditions.

According to a report released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in October, a total of 2,991 people died of unnatural causes, including target killings, till September 2012.

The three government hospitals in the city, namely Civil Hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, do have mortuaries, but they are very small given the number of casualties that take place in Karachi.

A Civil Hospital official says the hospital has a place to keep only 15 dead bodies at a time. Put together, the three hospitals can keep not more than 40 dead bodies.

The News tried to contact Sindh Minister for Health Dr Sagheer Ahmed for his views on the issue, but he was not available for comment.

Sunday 25 November 2012

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-144850-Needed-space-for-the-dead