LUCKNOW, 13 April 2006 — Dozens of protesters ransacked a government office in an Indian town yesterday, protesting against an alleged attempt to cover up the death toll from a trade fair inferno that killed at least 36 people.
“Don’t play politics over dead bodies,” the protesters shouted as they smashed windows and furniture in the office of the top administrator in the northern industrial town of Meerut, where a short-circuit set ablaze an electronics bazaar on Monday.
Authorities had initially said 51 people died in the fire that engulfed aircraft hanger-shaped temporary halls covered with plastic sheeting where around 2,000 people were browsing displays. But on Tuesday, officials revised the death toll down to 35, and yesterday added a further victim who died in hospital.
The moves triggered protests by people who said they were still looking for missing relatives, their anger fuelled by claims that bodies were run over by bulldozers in the aftermath of the blaze, and that some corpses were secretly cremated to scale down the disaster. The district administration strongly denied the accusations but officials gave widely conflicting accounts of the number of people still officially “missing”.
“My niece has been missing since the fire,” a man told a local TV station. “They (the administration) keep saying they will search and tell us but I don’t know where she is.” A local journalist, Sunil Taneja, said it was hard to believe the official death toll. “Thousands of people were present at the fair when the fire broke out. How can we be gullible enough to believe the official toll?” he said. “We have reason to believe a number of bodies were whisked away in police trucks and buried under garbage at a dumping yard outside the city limits.” Officials rejected the charges. “This is absolutely ridiculous,” said Mohinder Singh, a senior Meerut official. “How can anyone even think of doing such a thing? Why should we conceal the bodies or the death toll. The death toll is 36, 28 are missing and number of injured is 118.”
But a local opposition politician has questioned the official toll and the national media also expressed concern. “Toll so far: No one knows,” said the Hindustan Times newspaper.
In another development, doctors went on strike in Meerut yesterday after several were beaten up by relatives of the fire victims, officials said. Fighting erupted after reports that four human skulls had been found in a garbage bin at the local mortuary, said Dr. Ashish Chaudhry, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh state doctor’s association. Seven doctors and several paramedics were beaten and windows smashed at the mortuary, he said.
“Some of our staff members are serious, some of them have head injuries,” he said. “The doctors will not resume work till the administration gives them security.” More than 50 burn victims are being treated in Meerut’s two government hospitals.
“We have no option but to stop attending on them. I cannot ask doctors to attend duties in this insecure atmosphere,” said chief medical officer Dr. N. Bajpayee.
