By Editorial Panel
10 December 2014
Translated by Abdullah Nadvi
This chapter contains the district wise list of those killed in the Rana Plaza tragedy, the list of those identified after death through DNA testing and also the final draft list of the persons missing after the tragedy; all prepared by Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity. We believe before getting to know the thousand who lost their lives in this tragedy, we need to put forward the context. What led us to take up this task? What methods were followed in preparing these lists? What was the goal of this effort? To answer these questions we need to discuss some issues at the very beginning. Throughout last 19 months, Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity has been engaged in the movement to protest the collapsing of Rana Plaza building and death of over one thousand workers due to that, to ensure the workers who went missing after that are acknowledged and harassment of their families are ended, to ensure due compensation are given and all guilty parties are punished. On the day of the disaster, Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity took part in rescue efforts along with friendly organization Bangladesh Students’ Federation and other well-wishers and friends of the organization. We also started collecting data on the victims from the very beginning. A local organization named NEEDS also helped in this effort during the first few days. Collecting data on the missing persons were at the very center of our attention. While doing so, we felt the dire need of knowing the number of total workers working in Rana Plaza and the numbers of workers that got killed and/or went missing. During the 17 day long rescue operation family members of the workers who got killed and their dead bodies found received a small receipt from the deputy commissioner’s office; while those who got injured survived by themselves. However, family members of the persons that went missing were likely to face highest extent of hassle since there was neither any paper work nor any list of missing persons at that time. We could speculated this based on previous experiences. Up until the disaster in Tazreen, the state had never taken any kind of responsibility of the worker who went missing after an industrial accident. Instead, family members of the missing people were further burdened with the responsibility of proving existence of those gone missing. Under these circumstances, once the rescue operation was closed we were waiting for a list of missing persons from the government and BGMEA. But no list was publicized even after many days. After quite some time we started hearing about different lists coming from different places. In these lists the numbers of missing persons were as below: No. of missing person as per the factory inspection committee of the Government = 379 as provided by the armed forces = 261 as per the list of the deputy commissioner’s office = 332 or 329 (two different numbers from two different lists About discrepancies regarding name-address-age in the lists of missing persons We identified different incompleteness and inconsistencies in the prepared lists. At the same time these incomplete and inconsistent lists were beyond the reach of the people. However, compared to the lists prepared by the factory inspection committee of the government and the deputy commissioner’s office, the one prepared by the armed forces appeared to have much lesser extent of errors. The list prepared by the armed forces had names categorized by administrative divisions and districts, which made our work easier. Yet, this list could not be accepted as a complete one as many of the missing persons were not mentioned in this list. The sad yet true fact is- significant inconsistencies were visible in the list prepared by the government’s factory inspection committee. The same name was put in that list on multiple instances, and names were found in this list which was not found in any other lists. Even names of persons killed in the disaster and persons who survived the disaster were found in this particular list of missing persons. There were names which were not mentioned in any of the three lists, but later through DNA testing they were identified (i.e. these persons went missing). We were able to identify other missing persons who were not in any of these lists. Hence it was impossible to get a clear and complete idea about the number of persons missing due to the accident. Apart from these, faults in names and name of districts were also found in these lists. Names got switched; same person was found to be mentioned as Ripon Hossain and another instance mentioned as Shamim; Sultana’s name turned in to Gultana; same person had Begum as her surname at one instance and Akhter in another; name of the in-laws or neighbors were put instead of name of the parents and many other similar mistakes were there. When mentioning the permanent address, the name of workers from one district was also found to be mentioned in other districts. Instead of mentioning the district from where the worker came from husband’s/wife’s district or some other district was mentioned. Consequently, the suffering of the family members kept on increasing. For example, the case of Morzina who went missing after the accident may be mentioned. While Morzina was from Debidwar, Comilla; she was mentioned in a list to be from Kushtia and as a result all her papers ended up being sent to Kushtia. As a result her rickshaw puller brother had to go through a lot of hassle to get her papers. When we investigated about some the workers from Dhaka who got killed or went missing to re-confirm their identity; it turned out that many of them were not originally from Dhaka, they had been living in Dhaka for some years. In our list we transferred these names from Dhaka to their respective districts of origin. Along with name and address; there were also inconsistencies regarding age of the workers in the lists. Workers from which age group actually worked in Rana Plaza was not completely available in any of the mentioned lists. In fact, ages of very few of the workers were mentioned in these lists. So we had to go beyond these lists to confirm their ages through factory IDs, DNA forms, birth registration forms, certificates from Union Parishads. Yet there were others whose age could not be confirmed through any of these sources and we had to directly contact them or via phone to do so. Poly Akhter is a worker who was reported as missing, but later was confirmed dead. When we contacted her mother Shaheeda to confirm whether Poly was still missing, she informed us that Poly’s dead body was found. When we asked Shaheeda Begum to state her full name she asked her husband, ‘Hei Poly’s dad! What’s my full name?’Again when asked her for her age she asked her husband, ‘Poly’s dad! How old am I?’ Seeing us surprised to this she explained that her husband knows her and her daughter’s full name, actual age etc. as he it is he who usually uses these information in different places. Similarly, when asked mother of Shyamoli, a missing worker, for Shyamoli’s age she informed “Her father knows her age correctly.” Many other similar cases are there and we do not have the scope to mention all of those here. Despite all of our efforts we have not succeeded in collecting the ages of all 1,175 persons who got killed or went missing. But the government and BGMEA should have gathered these data. We managed to collect age data of 1,023 of the victims and based on this have tried to understand which age groups the factory workers of Rana Plaza belonged to. While investigating about the killed and missing victims of Rana Plaza, we have come to the realization that similar to the RMG workers of our country, majority of our workers, farmers and working class people have little scope of using their name, birth date, district, address etc. in their daily life. Workers of Rana Plaza are no exceptions. They only get to use these information in their factory IDs and National ID Cards. Yet, they are not fortunate enough to be careful and/or correct when using/mentioning this information. Many of the RMG workers are actually under the age of 18 yet have to mention it to be higher to get a job at the factories. Even with age over 18 they are not voters and do not have National IDs. These create obstacles to pointing out their name, age and address accurately. On one hand, the above mentioned incompleteness and inconsistencies in the different lists was visible to us; and on the other hand it became evident to us that when preparing these lists- the practical problems of using the name-identity-age-address etc. of the working class people were not taken into consideration. Why we prepared this list? After witnessing the incompleteness and inconsistencies of the lists for a while, we felt the impetus to prepare a list on our own. Despite being a relatively new organization, we began planning for the tiresome task of preparing a list of missing workers from the Rana Plaza disaster. To retort against the disrespect and negligence of the state and factory owners towards the workers, we took the initiative to prepare an as accurate as possible and complete list of missing persons. According to this decision Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity began collecting preliminary data from the workers. Keeping the errors of the other lists we were as careful as possible in gathering and recording information. One of our objectives was to determine who are the missing workers and what is their actual number; so that their family members may get compensated and their claims may not get overlooked anyhow. Because from our experience in dealing with such disasters (in Spectrum, Tazreen, Garib and Garib etc.) before, has taught us that because the government and the BGMEA not preparing a comprehensive list of victims, they are subjected to enormous hassles when seeking compensations. At that time friends from the group called Activist Anthropologists prepared a list of 124 missing persons from the Tazreen disaster, while the government list mentioned names 111 persons. After the Rana Plaza collapse, our organization worked for a long time and after almost 11 months came up with a draft list of missing persons from the Rana Plaza disaster on 29 March 2014. Two DNA reports got published while preparing this draft list. But names of many of the missing persons were still not mentioned in those reports. Mean while on multiple occasions human skeletons and bones were found at the collapsed Rana Plaza site and this further increased the pressure to finalize the list of missing persons. Every time new names were being added to the list, we wondered may be these are the people whose bones were found on the site of the disaster. We noticed negligence of the state and factory owners was creating possibility of- victims especially the family members of the missing persons not getting justice and proper compensation. As if by becoming missing, these factory workers have somehow become ‘non-existent’ to the state, memories about them are erased from everyone’s mind. As if they were not members of this very society, as if they were not citizens of this very country, and they were not our brothers and sisters. It seemed that state was trying to make the process of making so many people ‘non-existent’ appear as a normal thing in the eyes of the people. Arrangements were all around- so that consciousness of all the citizens would accept this intolerable cruelty. But we were not ready to accept these as normal. Hence, the task of preparing a list came to our fore as a responsibility. As days went by, our list kept on growing. Our investigation revealed identities of 162 missing persons, and we collected pass port photos as well as some photos from family photo albums from all except 13 of them. To ensure dependability of the data of our list, we reconfirmed names and identities of the missing workers using the list prepared by the government inspection committee and the one prepared by the armed forces. In our list, with each entry of missing person we have attached the serial number that person has in other lists. We started our work of finalizing the list by comparing three lists together. These are- the list prepared by Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity itself, the list prepared by the government’s factory inspection committee and the one prepared by the armed forces. About preparing the list and data collection method Immediately after the incident Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity started collecting data from the families of the victims and the workers themselves without any coordinated initiative. Later, a form was prepared as soon as possible and using that the organization started collecting data methodically. Objective was to find out about the killed and the missing persons. Data collection from around the Rana Plaza building especially from the Adharchandra field went on for 17 days from the day of the incident. After starting the enlisting, the names in the list of killed kept on piling up rapidly; which was beyond our imagination. Who were actually missing could not be confirmed until then. At one stage we saw that when the dead bodies were being handed over to the family members of the deceased, the family members were being given a slip of BDT 20,000 and a slip number from the deputy commissioner’s office as a token of receipt of the dead bodies. We had due reasons for focusing more on the missing persons than on the killed ones. Because from our previous experience, we knew accurate list of the killed and missing workers is usually never published and there were even allegations of hiding dead bodies on previous occasions. While the rescue operation was on going, for collecting preliminary data we relied on questionnaires filled up by family members of killed and missing persons, interviews, posters put up by family members seeking information about missing persons, forms filled up for DNA testing, factory ID, national ID card etc. The list of ‘24th April’ collection and some photographs taken by photographer Ayon Rehal also helped us in getting addresses and phone numbers of some of the missing persons. Apart from these, we resorted to many other sources to contact those claiming to be family members of missing persons and interviewed many family members of victims. In the next stage, once the rescue operations were completed we contacted with the families that filled up data collection forms to confirm whether their family members were still missing or not. Because, meanwhile many had found their missing relatives, some were found alive and dead bodies of some were recovered. We went directly from house to house of the families and did interviews to verify information about the missing persons who were already included in our list as well as about newly identified ones. Our organization contacted directly family members of the workers living around areas adjacent Rana Plaza which include- Savar Pakiza, Imandipur, Thana Stand, Genda, Bank Colony, Kazi Muktar Para, Madhya Para, Boktarpur, Dagormuda, Chapain, CRP, Rajashan, Radio Colony, Zamsingh, Batpara; and collected data from them. Similar data had also been collected from those family members who came to provide blood samples for DNA testing at the Dhaka Medical College and Salimullah Medical College. Data was also collected from family members of the workers who lived in districts away from Dhaka and those coming from different districts to the army camp for help. When preparing the list we had to keep track of the first and second DNA report as well as the list of killed workers prepared by the office of the Deputy Commissioner. Those whose names were found in the DNA report had to be considered as killed and their names removed from the list of missing persons. At the same time, the task of matching the names in the DNA report with the graves at the Jurain graveyard was also continued. While doing so numerous faults in the process of handing over the dead bodies from the government to the relatives came to the fore. Discrepancies regarding Jurain graves of the killed who were identified through DNA testing also came to light. Many of these were unbelievable. These discrepancies brought to light some critical issues regarding preparation of the list of killed and missing persons. At the same time made some cruel aspects of depending solely on DNA reports for identification and the disaster of 24 April as a whole. Mentioning some of these here is felt necessary. Before that, how many of the dead were buried at the Jurain grave yard following what process is described here. Some discrepancies regarding handing over the dead bodies and the Jurain graves At the Jurain grave yard unclaimed dead bodies/remains of total 291 Rana Plaza workers were entombed. In lines 4 and 6 of the western bloc of the grave yard were graves of 55 victims of the Tazreen disaster. Here in line 4, were also the graves of 5 of the Rana Plaza victims. The remaining 286 victims of Rana Plaza were buried in the eastern bloc in four lines from line 8 to 12. These 291 persons were buried as unclaimed dead bodies/remains in between May 1 to 20, 2013 in 8 rounds (May 1, May 5, May 7, May 9, May 11, May 13, May 14 and May 20). Zanaza of these persons were led by an Imam of Jurain named Shoyeb Chowdhury, while his assistant Mohrar AKM Nazmul Hasan was in charge of mapping the graves. Name of 206 persons found in the three DNA reports published (as per government sources) Result of the 1st DNA report= 157 persons identified on 3 November 2013 (as per government sources, relatives of 20 of these persons received the dead bodies already) Result of the 2nd DNA report= 42 persons identified on 9 February 2014 (9 persons have to be excluded from this report also, as relatives of 2 of them received dead bodies already and 7 of them were in the first report) Result of the 3rd DNA report= 7 persons identified on 8 April 2014 Total= 206 persons To be excluded (22+7)= 29 persons Thus, no. of graves should be= 177 persons Through these three reports, names of 206 persons were published, among whom actually 177 were newly identified as killed in the Rana Plaza disaster. The authorities reported that graves of these killed persons were handed over to their relatives. However, graves of many victims named in the first DNA report could not be found. There are 7 persons whose names are in both the first and second DNA reports. This means, they have two graves, or different parts of their bodies have been entombed under different number plates as different persons. Names of the 7 persons with two graves are given below: Sweet- blood sample received from Mother- Rashida, Distrcit- Narail DNA no. DMC-193 Line no. 10 Grave no. B/30 DNA no. DMC-208 Line no. 10 Grave no. B/14 (entombed as two separate corpses on 13 May 2013) Ankhi Akhter- blood sample received from Father- Adil Laskar, Upazila- Savar, District- Dhaka DNA no. DMC-144 Line no. 7 Grave no. B/36 DNA no. DMC-138 Line no. 9 Grave no. B/41, buried as a male as per grave yard records (entombed as two separate corpses at Jurain on 11 May 2013) Titu- blood sample received from Father- Anwar Hossain, Distrcit- Dinajpur DNA no. DMC-33 Line no. 8 Grave no. B/14 MIDD-1 (no graves with this name) Asaduzzaman- blood sample received from Son- Hasibul Islam, Distrcit- Magura DNA no. DMC-90 Line no. 8 Grave no. B/14 (Corpse entombed in Jurain on 5 May 2013) DNA no. SMC-15 Line no. 8 Grave no. B/31 (Corpse entombed in Jurain on 1 May 2013) (Dead body of Asaduzzaman arrived at Jurain in two parts with a gap of 4 days in between) Pushpa Rani- blood sample received from Mother- Mina Rani, Distrcit- Dhaka DNA no. DMC-156 Grave no. A/12 DNA no DMC-158 Grave no. A/14 (entombed as two separate corpses at Jurain on 11 May 2013) Martha Shikha Hasda- blood sample received from Father- Ranatun Hasda, District- Rajshahi DNA no. DMC-203 Line no. 10 Grave no. B/39 DNA no. DMC-205 Line no. 10 Grave no. B/41 Sazeda Begum- blood sample received from Father- Azid Ali, District- Shariatpur DNA no. SMC-56 Line no. 7 Grave no. B/27 DNA no. SMC-57 Line no. 7 Grave no. B/14 (entombed as two separate corpses at Jurain on 7 May 2013) Government sources already mentioned that 22 out of the 206 corpses had been identified before getting them to Jurain. As per our research this number is not 22, rather including Sushanta it stands to be 23. Name of Sushanta Das from Hobiganj is in both the list of the killed and list of persons identified through DNA reports. Relatives of these persons provided their blood samples for DNA testing within 17 days of the disaster. After providing the blood samples many of them identified and received corpses of their killed relatives from Adhar Chandra school compound or from the morgues of Dhaka or Salimullah Medical College. Corpses of these persons were handed over to their relatives before their names came up in the DNA test reports. Hence, it is natural that their graves were not in the Jurain grave yard. As per the information available name of all 23 of these persons are in the list of the killed, their relatives have received acknowledgement receipts from the office of the Deputy Commissioner and when receiving the corpses the relatives also received BDT 20,000 for burial services. Their names came up later in the DNA test reports. Their names coming up in the DNA report is not the problem; however the troubling fact is graves of 19 out of these 23 persons were found at the Jurain grave yard. Hence the question is- how do these 19 persons have two graves, one at their respective family grave yards, and another in Jurain as unclaimed corpse/remains? Or how can the same person be both entombed and cremated? Can the case be that a part of the corpse is entombed in Jurain grave yard, while another is done so in a family grave yard? Or could it be the relatives have identified the wrong corpses as they could not identify properly due to decomposition of the dead bodies? Or maybe the relatives have identified any unknown corpse with the intention preventing the case of not receiving compensations because of not having identified a corpse as their own? Families of the killed workers with two bodies are demanding to publish the DNA reports, they have entombed or cremated a part of the corpse of their relative, while another part is in Jurain. Majority of such families have reported to our investigation team that they received the lower part of a corpse, or the corpse did not have a head on it, or it did not have proper shape etc. Relatives of only one such killed worker have reported that they received a full body. But none of the others have reported receiving the whole body. It is not ours but the responsibility of the government to prove what is the truth. But the whole fiasco has undoubtedly generated questions. It is also sure that there has been unacceptable lack of attention and negligence in handing hover the shattered and decomposed bodies. Entombed both at family grave yards and at Jurain grave yard Benu Rani Das: SMC-95, Line no. 8 Grave no. A/23 (entombed at Jurain on 9 May 2013, family cremated the remains at Nambazar crematorium) Monwar: DMC-141, Line no. 7 Grave no. A/33 (entombed at Jurain 11 May 2013, corpse received after 12-13 days of the disaster. Family entombed the remains at Savar, Talbagh grave yard). Shushanta: SMC-149, Line no. 9 Grave no. A/20 (entombed at Jurain on 14 May 2013, family cremated the remains at Nambazar crematorium) Keya: DMC-122 Line no. 8 Grave no. A/19 (entombed at Jurain on 9 May 2013, family entombed her at Bahadurpur grave yard at Pangsha Upazila of Rajzbari district) Abu Taher: SMC-78 Line no. 7 Grave no. A/08 (Corpse received from Adhar Chandra field after 14 days of the disaster. Bttom half of the body found. Family entombed him at Sonapur grave yard at Sariakandi Upazila of Bogra district) Parveen: DMC- 186, Line- 10 Grave no. A/22 Marzina Begum: DMC- 34, Line no. 8 Grave no. B/14 Sumon Das: DMC-127, Line no. 8 Grave no. A/24 (Corpse identified from Adhar Chandra field after 13 days of the disaster. Decapitated body found. Identified with waist) Nur e Alam: DMC-169, Line no. 10 Grave no. B/21 (Corpse identified from Adhar Chandra field after 16 days of the disaster. Identified with cell phone and money bag. Face was at unrecognizable state. Entombed at family grave yard. Shilpi Akhter: DMC-145, Line on. 9 Grave no. A/37 (Corpse identified from Adhar Chandra field after 16 days of the disaster.Full corpse found in relatively unchanged form. Buried by family at Thakurgaon district) Sumon- DMC-150, Line no. 9, Grave no. A/37 (Identified through bones and identity card from Adhar Chandra field. Corpse was not in recognizable shape. Entombed at Narayanganj) Rafiqul Islam- SMC-141, Line no. 9 Grave no. B/44 (Entombed after 16 days of the disaster at the village named Ramgopal in Pirganj) Israfil- SMC-137 Line no. 9 Grave no. B/40 (Corpse received by relatives from Adhar Chandra field on 9 May 2013. Entombed at Batpara grave yard at Badda. Lower half of the body was found only) Selim Sheikh- SMC-97 Line no. 9 Grave no. A/25 Lata Begum- SMC-152 Line no. 9 Grave no. A/23 (Full corpse found) Alpana Dasi- SMC- 132, Line no. 9 Grave no. B/32 (Identified through dress. Cremated at Chitkhola) Sagarika- DMC-163, Line no. 10 Grave no. Rina-DMC-26, line no.8 Grave no. B-11. (Corpse identified from Adhar Chandra school’s field at 19th days of the disaster. Buried by family at Pathorghata, Borguna District) Grave not identified at Jurain grave yard Shahedul- SMC-08 (DNA no. 128) District- Faridpur Shomapti Rani Das- DMC-31 (DNA no. 101) District- Sunamgonj Riajul Karim Khokon- DMC no. 28 (DNA-13, 17) District- Rajbari Liza Akhter- DMC 47 (DNA no. 80) District- Pirojpur Jahangir Shekh- DMC-75 (DNA no. 28) District- Foridpur Taslima Akhter- DMC- 93 (DNA no. 28) District- Mymensing Ruzina Akhter- DMC-21 (DNA no. 120) District- Bramonbariya Morzina- DMC-78 (DNA no. District- Rangpur (Hahi Begum)/ Hashi Akhter Munni- DMC-12 (DNA no. 33) District- Borishal Shahinur Begum-DMC-32 (DNA no. 62) District- Madaripur Eni Begum- DMC09 (DNA no. 09) District Nilfamari Aleya Khatu- DMC-94 (DNA no. 06) District-Natore Khairul- DMC-82 (DNA no. 43) District- Borguna Hemayet Ali- DMC-81 (DNA no. 82) District- Gopalgonj Shurovi Rani Das- DMC-48 (DNA 103) District- Hobigonj Asma Akhter-DMC-69 (DNA no. 155) District-Khulna Reshma Begum - SMC- 68 (DNA no. 198) District- Rajbari It is not like the discrepancies between the DNA report and Jurain graveyard, and the mismanagement in handing over the dead bodies have been caused just due to inefficiency of the relief and rehabilitation department. It has to be noted that many of the corpses were torn apart, got decomposed, family members of one victim have taken away corpse of another victim. But the main reason for all of these, according to us, is the limitless disrespect and carelessness the state and other authorities usually show towards the poor and helpless workers. Consequently, we witnessed all means of identifying missing workers other than DNA testing remaining unavailable. And the DNA testing technology has actually been used to hide the carelessness and disrespect of the state towards the working class. After publicizing of the results of the first and second round DNA tests we prepared the draft list of 183 missing persons. Of this 183, we identified 146 persons to be confirmed missing. We demanded further investigation to confirm the identities of the remaining persons (147 to 183) as there were discrepancies regarding their names and addresses. Later we forwarded this list to the State Minister of Labor, ILO, Rana Plaza Coordination Cell and ISPR of the armed forces. The Dead Identified through Bones and Skeletons Missing worker Ebadul was later identified when his bones and skeleton was found in the rubbles of Rana Plaza. His name was not found in any of the three DNA test reports. Street children found his pant, bones, factory identity card and cell phone, some 8 months after the incident. A skull was also found a few yards apart. Later the police themselves identified Ebadul. His name was holding serial no. 94/275 in the list of the inspectors, and serial no. 119 in the list prepared by the armed forces. Hence, there is no doubt that not just parts of Ebadul’s body, but in fact his whole skeleton remained under the rubbles till the discovery. Otherwise, he could have been identified through one of the DNA tests. Adding Ebadul and others who died in different hospital the total number of killed persons stands to be 835. This Ebadul incident proves that DNA testing cannot be considered as the sole method of looking for the missing persons. Our draft list became further comprehensive one the result of the third DNA test came out. The government announced that there will be no more DNA tests. Hence, confirming the identity of the remaining missing persons became even more important. From our list of missing persons we deducted the names of the persons who were identified as killed persons through the third DNA test results. And we added some new names who have been newly reported as missing persons. While doing so we had to repeatedly go through the list of killed persons prepared by the government. And since this list was not prepared district wise we had to go through the entire list to search for each of the names. In the list of killed persons name of Izabul from Madaripur was found twice. Three of the injured workers- Kohinur, Salma and Zayeda died at the hospitals while taking treatment, their names have not been included in the government list and many other lists. Hence, we incorporated these names and organized the entire list by division and by district. While our work was ongoing we participated in the meetings on preparing list of missing persons held by BGMEA and relief and rehabilitation department of Dhaka district administration. Initially a list of 129 missing persons had been provided by BGMEA. In government documents this number is shown as 135. When we compared our list with the one from BGMEA we found that there were some names in the BGMEA list that were not in our list, similarly there were names in our list which were not in the one from BGMEA. Thus we formally requested BGMEA to add these names to their list. BGMEA did so, and the number of missing persons stood to be 158. Later we got names of another 9 missing persons from Rana Plaza Coordination Cell. Combining all these and proper investigation and scrutiny by Garment Worker Solidarity a list of 162 missing persons had been developed. From our experience we can infer that the actual number of missing persons may be higher than 162 and it is the responsibility of the government and BGMEA to confirm that. As per the information we have, combining the 835 persons killed (and identified without DNA testing), the 178 persons identified as killed persons through the DNA tests and the 162 persons identified as missing persons- the total number of killed persons is 1,175. The actual number of killed persons may be higher. As per the government announcement the number is 1,136 combining the killed and missing persons. But we can positively assert that this number is wrong. It is our hope that the list of killed persons, those identified as killed through DNA tests and those reported missing will have at least some impact in recording the true history. The comprehensive list of missing persons with photographs and complete identity of each of the missing persons organized district wise has also been attached here in this chapter. The families of the missing persons are being harassed the most, and that is why they need the evidence-information-proof the most. We started this chapter with the posters of missing persons and their family photographs. This has been followed by presenting the missing workers on the map of Bangladesh on the districts where they came from. Masud Imran Mannu a teacher from Jahangirnagar University has prepared this map for us. It is because of his interest that we investigated the age of all 1,175 persons. We believe age-wise classification of killed persons has added a new dimension to this chapter. We have seen that the highest share of workers killed at Rana Plaza belongs to 18 to 25 years age group. Of the 64 districts of Bangladesh, Rana Plaza had victims from 59 districts. Apart from these some other vital information can be found from the two tables added at the end of this chapter. Families of the killed workers have helped us to a great extent by providing us with information, photographs and helping us in many other ways, we cannot be grateful enough to them. We are thankful to Musa Kalimullah a member of Garment Worker Solidarity, who despite being severely sick contributed in this work. We also thank our friends- Arful Islam, Probir Saha, Saikat Mallik, Ashraful Alam Sohel, Mizan Rahman, Arifa Sultana, Rina Amena and many others who have helped us every step of the way. Finally we are thanking the members and organizers of the Rana Plaza unit of our organization, without whom this would have been simply impossible. Back