Family members of a missing garment worker recovered a body from the debris of a factory at Rupnagar in Dhaka city, 12 days after a devastating fire destroyed it on October 14.
Discovery of the body on the first floor of the factory building raised the death toll from the first to 17.
Rupnagar police officer-in-charge Morshed Alam said that the family, with police assistance, found the burnt body at around 5:00pm Saturday under a table.
The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for post-mortem examination.
The police suspect the body to be of Marzia Sultana, 18, daughter of rickshaw-van driver Md Sultan from Sunamganj鈥檚 Dharmapasha.
She had been missing since the fire.
Initially, 16 charred bodies were recovered and were later handed over to their relatives after determining their identities through DNA tests.
Marzia鈥檚 mother, Yesmin Begum, a domestic help living in Rupnagar slum, said that they had searched relentlessly since the fire.
鈥榃e had no trace of my daughter. I went to the police several times to file a complaint, but they didn鈥檛 take it,鈥� said Marzia鈥檚 father Sultan.
Sultan said that three of his family members鈥擬arzia, her husband Md Joy and his son Md Hossain鈥攚orked at the same factory.
Hossain escaped from the third floor, but Joy, who worked on the second floor, was found dead.
His body was handed over to the family earlier.
Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Tajul Islam Chowdhury, director of operations and maintenance at the Fire Service, said before the recovery that their rescue operation had ended after ensuring no more bodies remained inside.
The police said that the recovered body would be handed over to the family after DNA verification.
The Fire Service earlier formed a seven-member committee to investigate the blaze that destroyed the garment factory and an adjacent chemical warehouse.
A case has been filed, but no arrests have yet been made.
