Shawdesh desk:

A resident of Kushtia, Shablul Alam Sabuj rushed to the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery at around 3:00pm on Friday, as he received a phone call informing him about his daughter Brishti’s death in the Bayley Road fire.

At that time, only one body was kept at the facility’s morgue, thought to be of journalist Ovisruti Shastri’s.

While talking to journalists, Shablul Alam Sabuj said that he hailed from Bonagram of Betbaria union of Khoksa upazila in Kushtia district.

He said that Brishti, also known as Ovisruti, was his eldest daughter among three.

‘I had high hopes that she will do big in her life. She used to assure us that she will look after the family soon,’ Sabuj said.

Some of the journalists, who knew Ovisruti personally, opposed Sabuj’s claim of being her father on the grounds of them belonging to different faiths.

When the journalists showed him Ovisruti’s photo, Sabuj claimed that it was his daughter’s photograph, saying that her real name was Brishti Khatun.

Journalists and friends of Ovisruti, however, mentioned that she used to identify herself as a Hindu, which was also mentioned in her resume that she had submitted to her workplace.

‘My family and I follow Islam and her last name cannot be Shastri,’ Sabuj said.

He said that his family had no information whether she had at all converted to Hinduism.

Later, his nephews came at the spot and echoed Sabuj that it was their cousin Brishti.

However, they left empty handed as the hospital authority said that the body would be handed over only after DNA test.

Ramna Kali Mandir committee president Utpal Saha said that he knew Ovisruti for the last eight months as she made regular visits there.

He said that the body should not be handed over to anyone before the DNA test.

Ovisruti was a journalist at an online portal, TheReport.live.

She reportedly went for dinner with a friend in Green Cozy Cottage, an eight-story building in Bailey Road that was razed by a fire on Thursday night, killing 46 people.

Along with her body two other bodies, charred beyond identification without DNA tests, are now kept at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.

Other two bodies are thought to be of Minhaj and Nazmul Islam, according to family claims.

The bodies will be handed over to the families after DNA tests, said Md Abdur Rahman, officer of Dhaka District Relief and Rehabilitation.

Two survivors with inhalation injuries are still undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said DMCH director Md Nazmul Haque.

Another five survivors are at the Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, said its resident doctor Toriqul Islam.

Toriqul told New Age that six people were discharged on Saturday.

He said that the condition of the other five survivors is critical.

‘They are having complications in talking as they suffered burns to their airways,’ added he.

Witnesses said that soon after the fire broke out, an explosion occurred causing a huge flame that blocked the only staircase when several hundred people were enjoying dinners at restaurants housed in the building offering leap year discounts on February 29.

The blaze is believed to have broken out at a coffee shop called Chumuk on the ground floor of the building about 9.45pm and spread to other floors quickly, leaving little time for the victims to come out.

Thirteen fire-fighting units of Fire Service and Civil Defence were joined by police and other forces to bring the fire under control in about two hours of effort.

The firefighters could pull out at least 75 people alive, while also recovering three bodies from the spot and 42 people in unconscious condition, most of whom were declared dead later after being taken to hospitals.