Gulistan blast: Another body found, death toll reaches 21

Another body was recovered from the ruins of the collapsed five-storey building in the capital's Gulistan area, taking the death toll to 21.

The body was recovered from the basement of Cafe Queen Market on North South Road of Gulistan around 12:15pm on Thursday (9 March), confirmed Shahjahan Sikder, deputy assistant director (media cell) of Fire Service and Civil Defence.

According to description given by the family members it is being assumed the body is of Mehedi Hasan Swapan, says Assistant Director of the fire service Akhtaruzzaman.

He said, Swapan's family members said Swapan weighed about 120kg and the body that was recovered was also very heavy. However, due to the body being burned and injured the identity cannot be ascertained just by seeing the body.

When asked about the latest condition of the blast site, he said, there is 4 to 5 feet of debris in the basement of the building.

"Twenty members of our fire service recovered the body by risking their lives. According to the information we have, there are no more bodies in the building," he added.

About whether the rescue operation will be concluded Akhtaruzzaman said no decision has been taken yet.

Also Read - 'My Swapan is underneath collapsed walls'

A little while before identifying the corpse, Swapan's nephew Sheikh Mohiuddin Ajim told The Business Standard, "The only person who is still missing in the Siddique Bazar explosion Tuesday is my younger uncle Mehdi Hasan Swapan.

"After the explosion, we have been searching in Dhaka Medical College, Sheikh Hasina Burn Unit and National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation (NITOR), but could not find Mama anywhere."

The explosion took place in the underground shop of the building. What made it worse is the fragile condition of the building which made it risky to carry out rescue operations without collapsing the building, said Ajim.

Previously on Wednesday, his father-in-law Kamal Hossain was seen pleading with the authorities to rescue his son-in-law. Md Mehedi Hasan Swapan, manager of the shop called "Bangladesh Sanitary", was at the shop during the fire incident, he had said.

"My Swapan is underneath collapsed walls. The rescue authorities will find him with a search, for sure. If he is not alive, we will find the body at least. Everyone is watching but doing nothing," Kamal lamented while talking to The Business Standard on Wednesday.

The rescue operation started for the third day today (9 March).

Earlier, on Tuesday, at least 17 people were killed and over 100 were injured in a massive explosion in a 5-storey building near a BRTC bus counter in the capital's Gulistan area.

Meanwhile, two bodies were recovered from the debris on Wednesday.

Musa Haider, 45, a victim succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital last night, raising the death toll to 20.

The explosion occurred around 4:50pm on Tuesday. A sanitary materials shop on the ground floor of the building, Brac Bank office on one of the other floors and an adjacent 7-storey building were damaged but no building collapsed.

Meanwhile, three committees have been formed to investigate the explosion. Fire Service and Civil Defence has formed a four-member inquiry committee which will lodge a report within the next five working days. A national committee consisting of experts from Rajuk, City Corporation, Titas, WASA, and the Bangladesh Army has been formed to conduct an extensive probe into the incident. The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) formed a six-member committee.

The district administration provided Tk50,000 each to the families of those who died in the incident. While the seriously injured were given Tk25,000 each and minor injured people were given Tk10,000-Tk15,000 each.

The DC also informed that 10 injured are currently undergoing treatment at DMC while 12 are at the burn unit.