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Mohanganj Express fire

Garment worker Sajna in desperate search of her husband's body

Thursday, 21 December 2023


Garment worker Sajna Akter carrying her one-year-old daughter in her arms has been at Dhaka Medical College Hospital since Tuesday, reports bndews24.com
She claims her husband, 35-year-old Khokon Mia, was one of the people killed in the arson attack on the Mohanganj Express.
She has been asking to take custody of the body, but police have refused. As the bodies are totally charred, they cannot verify their identities without a DNA test.
At least four passengers were killed when arsonists set the Mohanganj Express ablaze early on Tuesday as it was entering the Tejgaon Station in Dhaka. Two of the bodies were charred beyond recognition. The family of a trader from Netrokona is claiming one body, while Sajna claims the other is her husband.
Sajna says she is sure because the body's teeth, the Punjabi it wore and the build all match that of her husband.
She visited the morgue on Tuesday, but wasn't allowed to take the body. She rushed to the morgue again on Wednesday from her home in Narayanganj.
Khokon travelled to his village home in Sunamganj to attend his niece's wedding on Thursday. He was returning to Dhaka on Monday on board the Mohanganj Express with his mother Bakula Begum and one-year-old daughter Sharmin.
Sajna last spoke to her husband at 9 pm on Monday. "I haven't spoken to him since." Khokon's mother managed to escape the train with Sharmin. Sajna said she later heard that four people died when the train was torched. She called her husband repeatedly after that, but his phone was switched off.