Delhi fire tragedy: Relatives say confused how to take bodies back home

Chaotic scenes prevailed at Maulana Azad Medical College, where the autopsy of the victims of the Anaj Mandi fire incident was done, as people said they were confused about how to transport the bodies of their relatives back home.

Zakir Hussain from Bihar's Madhubanj area lost his brother, Shakir, in the fire in a four-storey building on Sunday. He said the Bihar government has made arrangements for the relatives to carry the bodies back home on trains but there was no clarity on the procedure.

He said Delhi minister Imran Hussain had said on Sunday that the Delhi government will provide individual ambulances to them to take the bodies home but that too has not been done.

Family members and relatives also had a heated exchange with hospital authorities on the issue. They say it is difficult for them to transport the bodies in trains.

"We are not happy about travelling by train. Train would stop at Samastipur station and our village Barijana is another 70 km from there," said Mohammad Shamshir from Begusarai, Bihar.

Shamshir's neighbour Naveen Kumar, 19, died in the fire and he is here to collect his body.

He said Kumar hails from a very poor family. "His father is a taxi driver in Kolkata and mother works in fields," Shamshir added.

Many of the 43 people dead in the fire on Sunday morning were migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They were trapped in the building as they were asleep when the fire began.

The railways said it will carry the bodies of the Bihar residents dead in the fire to their home state. It officials said the bodies will be carried in the seating-cum-luggage rake (SLR coach) on board the Swatantrata Senani Express.

The officials said the resident commissioner of Bihar in Delhi approached Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for help to send the bodies home and coach was arranged.