A child’s wait for her mother who didn’t return

Eyes dazed and a face blank, five-year-old Sanin was on the arms of her father standing just yards off the morgue at Dhaka Medical College.

Her father was careful to not let her close to the stink of the charred remains that lay inside, but not far enough for the hint of stench that kept the air heavy around it.

Her mother Shila, 25, has been missing since Wednesday night and they were waiting to confirm if her body remained among the unidentified corpses.

“She (Shila) went out to bring some medicine for Sanin moments before the fire,” said the father Suman, a workshop employee of Chawkbazar who lived nearby.

“She never returned,” said Sumon who was breaking down in tears.

Sumon lives just around 200 yards from the spot from where the fire erupted. He managed to survive the blaze with Sannin and a five-month-old daughter, but fears that his wife Shila might have been perished in the inferno.

None of those inside Haider Pharmacy, where Shila went to buy the medicines, survived, he claimed. “I think my wife has also died,” he said.

Since this morning, Sumon has been carrying around Sanin in his arms and running up and down through Dhaka Medical College morgue and the information desk.

Now, a confirmation can only be obtained after Criminal Investigation Department (CID) runs a DNA matching of those corpses which have been burned beyond recognition.