Anxious family members visit mortuary
Several bodies in GTB Hospital mortuary remain unidentified
New Delhi, March 1: With a photograph of her youngest brother in her hand, Nabi Jan frantically went around the GTB Hospital mortuary on Sunday, hoping that he was not among those killed in the northeast Delhi communal violence.
A woman, whose 19-yearold son has been missing from northeast Delhi’s Mustafabad area, fell unconscious after seeing a corpse at the mortuary. Her family later confirmed that her son’s body was not in there.
Jan, whose younger brother Salman, 25, has been missing since the riots, was one among the desperate people looking for some clue about him.
“Salman worked as a labourer and had gone to Gokalpuri on February 26. He kept a phone, but it is switched off and there is no clue of what happened to him,” Jan said. None of the bodies in the mortuary was of his brother, he said.
Jan also spoke to a group of young lawyers and a team of the Shahdara District Legal Services Authority at a help desk, providing information and other help to the relatives of the missing persons.
“God knows what will happen to Salman’s two sons, aged eight and six years, as their mother is already dead. I have lodged a complaint with police but there is no information about my him,” Jan said.
Sources said till Saturday six bodies were unidentified at the mortuary, out of which two were identified and claimed.
One body was charred and three others were also unidentified.
Naeem, 45, a resident of Jafrabad who worked as a book binder, went missing during the riots on February 24.
“He had gone to old Delhi for some work. He told over phone that situation was not good and he was near Usmanpur, Pehla Pushta. I have searched in many other hospitals and now came here,” said Naeem’s brother Najmuddin.
Mumtaj, a high court lawyer, who is helping people along with her colleagues Farhan, Faraz and a team of volunteers, said record was being maintained by them to find about those missing.
“We are also helping people in the release of the identified bodies,” Mumtaj said.