Bodies Remain in Morgue as Tk 1.75 Crore Bill Stalls Burial
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Bodies lie inside the morgue, and Tk 1.75 crore must be paid to take them away. But no one is willing to pay. Due to financial constraints, the bodies have remained in the hospital morgue freezer for nearly 9 to 14 years.
No authority appears concerned about how or when these bodies will be removed or buried. Chattogram Medical College Hospital and the police administration are blaming each other. In this grim situation, four bodies now remain in distressing condition. Three of them are Muslims and one is a Buddhist. All were citizens of Myanmar.
Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) has two freezers for storing bodies, with capacity for up to 20 corpses. Apart from these four, there are currently no other bodies in the morgue.
Asked about why the bodies have not reached their final resting place, CMCH Principal Professor Jasim Uddin said, “The bodies have been here for a long time. Several letters were sent, but they still remain as they are.”
The hospital authority has written multiple times to the city police requesting the removal of the four bodies. However, when outstanding morgue fees were raised, no party took initiative. The daily storage fee is Tk 1,000 per body. Since 2012, two bodies have accumulated Tk 1 crore in dues, those of Kala Hossain, 50 and Abu Tayyeb, 20. For Shahi Mong Tho, who died in 2014, storage costs have reached Tk 43 lakh. Another Rohingya man, Hafiz Siraj, has been in the morgue freezer since 2017, with Tk 32 lakh in fees due.
Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) Assistant Commissioner (Public Relations) Aminur Rashid said, “Police responsibility ends once the body of a citizen who dies an unnatural death is sent to the morgue for post-mortem. In the case of foreign nationals in the morgue, CMP has informed the ministry through proper channels. The ministry will now handle the handover process. The cost of storing bodies is usually covered by the hospital’s welfare fund.”
Among the four bodies, three are Rohingya Muslim “illegal entrants” from Myanmar. In June 2012, Kala Hossain and Abu Tayyeb entered Bangladesh through the Teknaf border after being seriously injured in riots in Myanmar. Similarly, in 2014, Shahi Mong Tho (8) and in 2017 Hafiz Siraj entered illegally while injured. All four died while undergoing treatment, and their relatives abandoned the bodies.
CMCH authorities said they have repeatedly informed city police to take away the bodies after paying the storage charges. However, no initiative has been taken from the police side. With the passage of time, the bodies are now on the verge of decomposition. Morgue attendant Kadam Ali said post-mortems have already been completed and prolonged storage is causing deterioration. If the morgue freezer fails, the bodies could fully decompose.
A few years ago, following CMCH letters, city police informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn contacted Myanmar authorities. Myanmar refused to take responsibility for the Rohingya. Police had also proposed burying the bodies through Anjuman Mufidul Islam. However, the issue stalled as the outstanding morgue fees remained unpaid.
