Tears flowed quietly through Dhaka's Rayerbazar graveyard on Monday as families stood before graves they had searched for over months-finally knowing where their loved ones had been buried. The bodies of eight people killed during the July Uprising have been officially identified, bringing long-awaited answers to families who had lived with uncertainty since the unrest.
The eight were among 114 people buried as unclaimed bodies at Rayerbazar following the July 2024 uprising. The government announced the identifications at the graveyard on Monday, where Housing Adviser Adilur Rahman Khan detailed the forensic process that led to the breakthrough.
Adilur said forensic teams exhumed and examined the remains of all 114 bodies in accordance with the internationally recognised Minnesota Protocol. Of these, eight were confirmed as victims of the July Uprising, while efforts to identify one more individual are ongoing. "Never before in Bangladesh have so many bodies been exhumed from graves at the same time," he said.
For months, families had no knowledge of where the victims were buried. As officials guided them to the graves, the atmosphere at Rayerbazar turned deeply emotional. Family members broke down in tears, prayed, touched the soil, and stood silently beside the graves-many overwhelmed by the moment of painful closure.
Under the supervision of the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and following court orders, DNA samples provided by nine victim families were analysed, leading to the identification of eight martyrs. CID Chief and Additional Inspector General of Police Md Shibgat Ullah said the identification process for the remaining body was still underway.
He was speaking at a ceremony titled "Identification of Unidentified Martyrs' Graves" held at Rayerbazar on Monday, where the identified graves were formally handed over to the eight families.
The identified victims are Kabil Hossain of Dhaka's Madartek; Sohel Rana, 38, of Munshiganj; Asadullah of Sherpur; Rafiqul Islam of Feni; Mahim Miah of Mymensingh; Faisal Sarkar of Cumilla; Rafiqul Islam of Pirojpur; and Parvez Bepari of Chandpur.
After one and a half years, mothers and relatives wept uncontrollably at the graves of their loved ones, including the mothers of Faisal Sarkar, Sohel Rana, and Mahim Miah.
The event was attended by Liberation War Affairs Adviser Faruk-e-Azam and Special Assistant to the Health and Family Welfare Ministry Prof Dr Syedur Rahman, among others.
Following the July 2024 uprising, the unidentified bodies were buried at Rayerbazar. In the interest of justice, exhumation and identification were later carried out under CID supervision, with cooperation from the United Nations and in line with the Minnesota Protocol. Between December 7 and 27, DNA samples were collected from all 114 bodies as part of the identification process.
