Jesmin Papri/Dhaka
Relatives of people killed during a week of violence in Bangladesh desperately need to mourn. But before they can claim a loved one’s body they must navigate what seems an inexplicably cruel bureaucracy.
As a semblance of normality returns to daily life in Dhaka and other cities, relatives of dozens of victims have descended on hospitals in search of missing family members. In cases where identification has been possible, families then face procedures they say are tantamount to harassment by authorities.
“My son was killed. I did not apply to anyone to give birth to him. Why should I apply to get my son back after death?” said Hajera Begum, as she struggled to understand the complicated back-and-forth with officials to claim the body of 21-year-old Shahjahan.
Begum said her son sustained bullet wounds on Friday and died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital early Wednesday. By evening, family members still didn’t have permission to remove his body.
BenarNews reporters interviewed family members of 10 victims over three days at the Dhaka hospital, who related the complexities of claiming a body. The hospital is6 treating over 200 victims of gunshot wounds and its morgue is filled with bodies of people who succumbed to such injuries.
Bangladesh was rocked in the past week by its deadliest unrest in more than a decade as student protests against a discriminatory quota system for government jobs escalated into clashes with pro-government groups and security forces.
According to Bangladesh’s largest circulation daily, Prothom Alo, 197 people died in the violence. The government hasn’t released a death toll.
Morgue staff at the Dhaka hospital on Wednesday sent Begum to a police station with apparent jurisdiction over the neighborhood where Shahjahan was shot to register his death.
But the station denied jurisdiction, refused to register the death and sent Begum to another location. Police there also informed her that the area was not under their jurisdiction and sent her back to the first station.
The family returned to the morgue after several trips between the two police stations.
“Shahjahan has not got peace even after dying. On Wednesday, we could not finish the procedures involving the jurisdictional issues between the two police stations,” Shahjahan’s stepbrother, Badrul Amin, told BenarNews.
“The police have told us to try again on Thursday,” he said.
Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir, a coordinator of the rights organization Ain o Salish Kendra, said that managing and processing documentation related to a death was not the responsibility of family members.
“This is the responsibility of the public hospitals like Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the police. They should have finished the procedures,” he told BenarNews.
“These sorts of harassment and sufferings are undesirable and unacceptable,” said Faijul Kabir.
Deepak Kumar Gope, who was at Dhaka Medical College Hospital with his brothers, said his daughter Riya, 6, was hit in the head on Friday in Narayanganj city, about 20 km (12.4 miles) from Dhaka, by a stray bullet.
The 6-year-old had gone to play on the rooftop of her house without family members noticing. Security forces and protesters were clashing in the area.
She died on Wednesday morning from the combined impact of brain injury and multiple cardiac arrests, according to a handwritten cause-of-death note taped to a blanket covering her body.
“I have no space to mourn the death of my innocent 6-year-old daughter,” Gope said. “Now I am struggling to get her dead body back after completing so many formalities,” he said as he waited for the morgue to release his daughter’s body.
Difficulties started when the family asked for Riya’s body for cremation.
Morgue staff suggested that Gope go to the nearby Shahbagh police station and file a report on the death. They also asked for more documents as proof of Riya’s guardianship.
Then the family were informed that Riya’s body must be examined by a female police officer. Shahbagh police, however, told them that their lone female sub-inspector was on leave.
“They told us to arrange for a female police officer from another police station,” said an uncle of Riya who did not want to be named. “How can we do it?”
Only after the intervention of journalists at the morgue, Ashraf Ali, a constable of Shahbagh police station, called his superior to organize a female police officer from another station.
Riya’s body was released to the family on Wednesday evening.
Shah Alam, the officer-in-charge of Shahbagh police station, said legal issues involving the handover of bodies are “very sensitive.”
“We must exhaust every single step properly. Therefore, it causes some delays. But we have been trying to accomplish the procedures humanely,” he told BenarNews.
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