On Thursday (29th February), a 25-year-old journalist named Abhishruti Shashtri lost her life in a fire accident. The incident took place at a commercial building on Bailey Road in Dhaka city of Bangladesh.
The victim was working with ‘TheReport.live’ at the time of her death. The fire accident claimed the lives of at least 46 people, most of whom died due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
On Friday (1st March) morning, the colleagues of Abhishruti Shashtri identified her body which was kept at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s burn unit.
While speaking about the matter to The Business Standard, a colleague of the deceased informed, “Abhishruti (Shashtri) spoke to me yesterday afternoon. She was scheduled to join my team at barta24.com today.”
The victim primarily covered election news for ‘TheReport.live’. The biggest twist in the case surfaced when the alleged father of Shashtri, identified as one Shahburul Alam Sabuj, went to the Sheikh Hasina Burn Institute to claim her body.
He claimed that the deceased was not a Hindu but a Muslim by the name of ‘Brishti Khatun.’ However, Shahstri’s friends and colleagues have claimed that she always identified as a Hindu.
The hospital authorities then cross-verified her voter identity card and her fingerprints with the government database and found them to be registered in the name of ‘Brishti Khatun.’
Following an uproar over the controversy, the hospital retained the body of the victim and is now awaiting a DNA test.
While speaking about the ordeal, Sabuj said, “I wanted to raise my girl to be a prominent figure in the future. My daughter always told me ‘Baba, don’t worry. I will be a good human being”.
“My daughter never wanted to take money from me. She used to say, ‘I can take care of myself. You don’t need to worry, Baba’. I had so many hopes and dreams, all of those ended. I used to say that village girls can’t do anything better. But I will go to the village and say that my daughter does a lot of things. What will I take to the village now?” he added.