Today (Sunday) is the tenth anniversary of the world’s biggest industrial disaster-Rana Plaza collapse- in Savar of Dhaka.
On this day (24th April) in 2013, Rana Plaza building collapsed, killing 1,138 people. Most of the victims were garment workers who worked in one of the five factories in the eight-storey building.
Family members and workers, along with representatives from various organizations, have paid their respects by laying flowers at the memorial near Rana Plaza at the Savar bus stand.
Besides, injured workers and their families with teary eyes, remembered the victims of the tragic incident.
Bangladesh Garment Workers Trade Union Centre (GWTUC), Bangladesh Garments and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), Garments Sramik Front, Garments Sramik League and several other labour organizations paid their respects with flowers in memory of the deceased.
General Secretary of Garment Workers Trade Union Center of Bangladesh Joly Talukder said although ten years have elapsed, yet, compensation and rehabilitation for the families of the deceased workers and justice for the brutal massacre have not been delivered.
There is no major breakthrough in the trial proceedings of two cases filed over the country’s deadliest industrial disaster.
The wait for justice is not going to be over anytime soon as there is no significant progress in the case filed on charges of killing more than 1,100 people.
Trial in another case filed on charges of violation of building codes in the construction of the nine-storey building is yet to begin.
The owner of the Rana Plaza building remains in prison but the murder trial against him and others, including factory owners and local officials, continues to grind on almost seven years since charges were brought, with no one yet to be convicted.
Court sources said Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in June 2015 submitted two separate charge sheets — one for murder and the other for building code violation — against 42 accused, including building owner Sohel Rana.
Sohel Rana, his parents — Abdul Khaleque and Morjina Begum — and 34 others were charged with causing the death of the workers while four others were accused of sheltering Rana and helping him flee.
In 2016, two separate Dhaka courts framed charges against 42 accused in the two cases
