July Uprising: Exhumation of 182 unidentified bodies begins

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police has started exhuming the bodies of 182 unidentified martyrs killed in the July Uprising from the Rayerbazar graveyard in the capital.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police has started exhuming the bodies of 182 unidentified martyrs killed in the July Uprising from the Rayerbazar graveyard in the capital. On Tuesday (December 2) afternoon, it was seen that the CID's crime scene unit had surrounded the mass grave area. They will soon start working to collect DNA samples of the martyrs.

The head of the CID and senior officials of the organization will be present on the first day of exhumation. Tents have already been set up for exhumation of bodies from the graves and collection of samples. Earlier, on August 4, Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Mostafizur Rahman issued this order in response to a police application.

In an application filed by the police in the court, Mohammadpur Police Station Sub-Inspector Mahidul Islam mentioned that men and women of different ages were killed during the anti-discrimination student movement that emerged from the quota reform movement. Their identities need to be identified. The court issued this order in response to his application.

Officials of the CID's forensic unit said that tents have been set up in the cemetery area to recover the bodies of unidentified martyrs of the July Movement at the Intellectuals' Cemetery. An autopsy will be performed in this temporary tent. Later, the bodies will be reburied in a proper manner.

CID sources also said that a foreign expert forensic unit is expected to cooperate in identifying the identities of the unidentified martyrs. The entire process of exhuming the bodies and collecting DNA samples may take at least a month or more.