The Crime Investigation Department (CID) has been able to identify 11 of the 19 victims of the deadly Chawkbazar fire who had remained unidentified till now through DNA tests.
Nine of the 11 victims identified are male and two are female, CID Additional Deputy Inspector General Rezaul Haider disclosed during a media call on Wednesday (Mar 5).
The two women have been identified as Nasrin Jahan and Fatema Johura. The identities of the nine men have not yet been revealed.
The Feb 20 fire at Chawkbazar’s Churihatta intersection killed 67 people on the spot. Among them, 19 remained burned beyond recognition.
“On Mar 5, we collected DNA samples from 48 people,” said Haider and added that after several tests and cross-matching, they have been able to match 23 samples to the 11 victims.
”The identification process of the four other bodies is underway,” he said.
Responding to queries on the identities of the nine men, Haider said, “The investigators will be able to sort them out.”
“We have sent the report to the probe bodies. They will start handing over the bodies according to a court order,” he added.
He said that it will take another two weeks to identify the remaining four bodies whose DNA samples have been collected from their bones. These bodies have sustained more extensive burns.
CID has been collecting DNA samples since Feb 21 in order to identify those. They collected 38 samples to be matched against the 19 bodies. In addition to that 257 DNA samples have been collected from all the 67 dead bodies.