Nimtoli tragedy: No justice yet for victims after 9 years

The families of the victims of Nimtoli fire incident are yet to get any justice over the tragedy that took place on this day nine years ago.

The inferno, that had originated from a chemical warehouse at Nimtoli in Old Dhaka, claimed 124 lives on June 3, 2010.

Victims alleged that no legal action has been taken over the incident despite the loss of so many lives.

“After the incident, only a general diary (GD) was lodged with Bangshal Police Station, and that was it. There was no case filed, nor was any investigation to identify those responsible. We couldn’t even know who owned the chemical godown, or whose fault caused the deaths of those 124 people,” said Mamun Mia, who lost his seven-year-old son in the incident.

“No chemical godowns are here anymore, though there are some in the nearby areas. However, we don’t know if someone is running such warehouse secretly,” said Mamun, who also sustained burn injuries in the Nimtoli fire.

Shafiq Molla, a shopkeeper who lost his younger brother in the tragedy, said the families of the victims are stricken with financial constrains and could never recover from their losses.

“My brother, who was 30 at the time, left behind his two children – a son and a daughter. His wife got married elsewhere after the incident. Now these children are orphans, growing up amid poverty, with hardly any plausible support for their proper upbringing,” he said.

“This is not the only such case, but is the common scenario in all the families who became victims of the fire,” Shafiq Molla also said.

“After the incident, the government gave some money to the victims’ families. But it was that one time, and how long do you expect these poor families to return to their normal lives with such small donation? No other organisation came up with any help either. Nobody takes any updates of how those affected families are doing,” he added.

Talking to The Daily Star, residents in the area said no programmes were held today in remembrance of the incident, the biggest fire tragedy in the country. Only a prayer was offered at the local mosque at noon, and the families went to Azimpur Graveyard in the evening to offer prayers there.

Only two wreaths of flowers, from which some flowers were torn, were seen lying on the memorial built there, reports our staff correspondent.

The tattered flower wreaths only became a symbol of how our memory of the incident has faded within just nine years.