Building collapse: Relatives struggle to identify dead
Fazed by the collapse of the four story residential complex in East Delhi, relatives of those missing in the disaster are having a harrowing time identifying their relatives at Delhi hospitals.
Adnan was not at a mosque this morning to offer namaz or celebrate Id-ul-Zuha.
Instead, the man in his twenties, was gazing at 41 photographs pasted on a notice board at LNJP hospital with a silent prayer on his lips that he should not find one of his loved ones among them.
"Yeh chaubeez number Majnu ka lag raha hei (The no. 24 photograph looks like that of Majnu)," said Adnan, who came to earn his livelihood from Dabra village in Bihar's Katihar district, only to find two more of his relatives there.
Composed, he picks up his mobile phone to call elders of the family who are in another part of the hospital. They are not sure about two photographs but say the no. 24 photograph is that of Majnu.
"The photographs resembles that of Majnu, Arshad and Manglu. But there are no clothes or anything else to identify them," he tells his relatives.
Adnan says three of his relatives, including Majnu, are yet to be traced since Monday night when the four-storeyed building here collapsed.
"I stay in a neighbouring building. They were in the building which collapsed," said Adnan as he heads to the mortuary.
His relatives were all labourers and hailed from the same village in Katihar district.
At the mortuary, Adnan was asked to wait for at least 30 minutes to identify the body before authorities complete some formalities. A police photographer went inside to take photographs.
"They came to Delhi to earn livelihood but lost their lives," he said.