11 years of Tazreen fire: Injured workers still carry the pain

She still cannot stand on her feet for long because of body pain, and cannot work even if she gets a job in garments due to illness.

"In a way, you can say I am living a life akin to death," 37-year-old Parveen Akter, a victim of the devastating Tazreen Fashions fire in 2012, was recalling the horrific incident and her helplessness for the past eleven years.

Parveen is not alone.

"There was a shipment date that day. That's why we were still at the factory when the fire broke out in the evening," said Fatema Akter, another victim of the fire incident, while describing the harrowing memories of the day.

"After the fire alarm went off, everyone started running, and the supervisor scolded them. Going down to the third floor, I found the collapsible gate closed," she added.

"Later, a window of one of the rooms was broken, and everyone trapped there was pushed outside. I fell and broke my arms and legs," Fatema said.

As Parveen and Fatema spoke at the site of the Tazreen Fashions in Ashulia's Nishchintapur, other former workers of the factory were paying respect to their deceased colleagues on the eleventh anniversary of one of the largest tragedies in the history of Bangladesh's readymade garments sector.

On this day in 2012, at least 117 garment workers burned to death in a catastrophic fire at the Tazreen Fashions factory in the Nishchintapur area of Ashulia, Dhaka.

Over two hundred were injured, many of whom still bear injuries and constantly battle for survival.

On Friday (24 November), various rights organisations, injured workers, family members and relatives of the deceased workers paid floral tributes in front of the factory to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the Tazreen Fashions fire. Ashulia Industrial Police also placed a flower wraith. 

"These people lost their lives due to the negligence of the factory owners. We lost our ability to work, yet the trial of the case has not been completed," said China Begum, another former Tazreen Fashions worker who suffered severe injuries in the 2012 fire.

"Those of us who were injured and are still suffering have not received proper medical treatment. There has been no compensation or rehabilitation efforts. The nominal grants that were given were not enough to complete our treatment," she added.

China Begun demanded rehabilitation and compensation for the injured, as well as a speedy completion of the trial and maximum punishment for the guilty.

Trial progresses at snail's pace

Meanwhile, several rights organisations also expressed frustration over the delay in the trial process. 

Even after eleven years of the Tazreen tragedy, the injured workers have not been compensated or rehabilitated. Adequate medical treatment has not been provided to the injured workers, they said.
Moreover, the trial of the case filed over the incident has not been completed even after 11 years, and it is still stuck at the evidence collection stage, they added.

After paying tribute to the victims of the Tazreen Fashions fire, Superintendent of Police of Industrial Police-1 Mohammad Sarwar Alam said, "In light of the terrible incident of the Tazreen fire, a report has already been submitted to the court in the case filed. We are providing all kinds of support to expedite the judicial process. 

"This incident has shown us our weaknesses. It has revealed the things we should have been mindful of in the industry, our mistakes and deficiencies. We are vigilant to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future," he added.

Only 11 out of a total of 104 witnesses have testified in the case since the court ordered trial in the case by framing charges against the accused, including the factory's Managing Director Delwar Hossain on 3 September 2015. 

In the eight years since then, the state produced witnesses in court on only eight days out of a total of 56 hearings.

According to court sources, four days of hearings have been scheduled this year. However, the state counsel has failed to produce the witnesses.

"As all the witnesses are not available, the hearing of the criminal case related to the fire is getting delayed time and again," said Sifat-E-Nur Khanam, senior staff lawyer of BLAST.

She added that the next date of hearing in the case is 25 March next year. The last date of hearing in the case was 1 November.

Speaking on the occasion, labour leader Nazma Akhter alleged that the cases filed over the Tazreen Fashions fire are being kept hanging for years on the excuse of "unavailability of witnesses" only to divert attention from the case.

Tazreen Fashions owner Delwar Hossain, also the managing director of Toba Group, who walked out of jail on bail in the case in 2018, is now involved in the politics of Awami Matsyajibi League.