SAVAR, Bangladesh - Police in Bangladesh took six people into custody over the building collapse that killed at least 348 people, as rescue workers admitted Saturday that voices of survivors are getting weaker after four days pinned under the increasingly unstable rubble.
Still, in a boost for the rescuers, 29 survivors were pulled out Saturday, said army spokesman Shahinul Islam.
Most of the victims were crushed by blocks of concrete and mortar when the eight-story structure tumbled down Wednesday morning - a time many of the garment factories in the building were packed with workers. It was the worst tragedy to hit Bangladesh’s garment industry and focused attention on the poor working conditions of the employees who toil for $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Among those arrested Saturday were two owners of a garment factory, who a Dhaka court ruled can be questioned by police for 12 days without charges. Also detained are two government engineers and the wife of the building owner, who is on the run, in an attempt to force him to surrender. Late Saturday, police arrested another factory owner. Violent protests continued sporadically in Dhaka and spread to the southeastern city of Chittagong, where several vehicles were set on fire.
Working around the clock since Wednesday through heat and a thunderstorm, rescuers on Saturday finally reached the ground floor from the top of the mountainous rubble through 25 narrow holes they have drilled, said Brig. Gen. Ali Ahmed Khan, the head of the fire services.
“We are still getting response from survivors though they are becoming weaker slowly,” he said, adding that rescue workers were now able to see cars that were parked at the ground level.
“The building is very vulnerable. Any time the floors could collapse. We are performing an impossible task, but we are glad that we are able to rescue so many survivors.” He said the operations were to continue overnight as chances fade of people surviving for a fifth day with possibly grievous injuries and the heat.
The building site was a hive of frenzied activity all day with soldiers, police and medical workers in lab coats working nonstop. Rescuers passed bottles of water and small cylinders of oxygen up a ladder leaning against the side of the building to be given to possible survivors inside.
They used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy-blue sock and a pile of green, uncut fabric.
Nearby, Abul Basar wept as he awaited news of his wife, who worked in one of the garment factories. “My son says that his mother will come back some day. She must return!” he cried.
Every once in a while, a decomposed body would be brought out, covered in cloth and plastic, to a spot where ambulances were parked. Workers furiously sprayed air-fresheners on the bodies to cover the stench, leaving the air thick with the smell of death and cheap perfume.
The bodies were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.
Junior local government Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak put the death toll at 348. Islam, the military spokesman, said 2,429 survivors were accounted for, including the 29 pulled out Saturday.
Junior Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku said police had arrested Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman. He told reporters that police also had detained the wife of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the collapsed Rana Plaza building, for questioning. The top three floors ofthe eight-story building were illegally constructed. Islam said officials arrested Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd., late Saturday in Dhaka.
Authorities still are searching for Rana, a local politician, who hasn’t been seen publicly since the building collapsed. Negligence cases have been filed against him. Police in Bangladesh often detain relatives of missing suspects as a way to pressure them to surrender.
Dhaka police superintendent Habibur Rahman said Rana was a local leader of ruling Awami League’s youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
Hundreds of protesters demanding punishment for Rana blocked roads and clashed with the police Friday in and around Dhaka. They also sought closure of all garment factories in the city.
Rana’s permit to construct the building was from the Savar Municipal Corp., a local body that has lower building standards, and not Dhaka’s development authority, Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, said authority member Sheikh Abdul Mannan.
Police said they detained for questioning two engineers working for the Savar municipality, Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali. They did not say what role the two played in approving the design of the building but it was clear that the arrests amounted to a widening crackdown. Police spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to themedia.
A garment-manufacturers group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside when it collapsed.
Police say they ordered an evacuation of the building Tuesday after cracks in Rana Plaza were found, but the factories ignored the order and were operating when it collapsed the next day. Video before the collapse shows cracks in walls, with apparent attempts at repair. It also shows columns missing chunks of concrete, and police talking to building operators.
Officials said soon after the collapse that numerous construction regulations had been violated.
The disaster is the worst ever for the country’s booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and generated widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. Since then, very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.
Bangladesh’s garment industry was the third-largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country’s minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Loblaw’s Joe Fresh and Associated British Foods’ Primark, which said that their suppliers made garments at the collapsed factory, both vowed to help improve working conditions in Bangladesh.
Joe Fresh, the clothing brand owned by Brampton, Ontario-based Loblaw, had a “small number” of items produced at the complex, Julija Hunter, a spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. Loblaw is “saddened” by the tragedy and will work with its vendor to see how it can help, Hunter said. Loblaw has standards for suppliers to make sure that products are produced in a socially responsible manner and conducts regular audits to ensure compliance, she said.
“We hope to hear more from the authorities about the status of this situation and we are committed to supporting them,” she said.
One of Primark’s suppliers occupied the building’s second floor, the company said in a statement. The budget fashion chain owned by London-based Associated British Foods said it was “shocked and saddened” by the accident and has worked with nongovernmental organizations to help improve factory standards in Bangladesh.
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said its own investigation confirmed it “had no authorized production in the facility,” said Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for the Bentonville-based company. “If we learn of any unauthorized production, we will take appropriate action based upon our zero-tolerance policy on unauthorized subcontracting,” Gardner said.
Workers-rights advocates are petitioning companies to sign a contractually enforceable memorandum that would require them to pay Bangladesh factories enough to cover the cost of safety improvements.
So far, New York-based PVH Corp., owner of the Tommy Hilfiger brand, and German retailer Tchibo are the only ones to sign the agreement, which also would require companies to provide accurate and regularly updated lists of their approved suppliers and subcontractors in Bangladesh. It won’t take effect until four major retailers sign up.
Information for this article was contributed by Farid Hossain, Julhas Alam, Chris Blake, Gillian Wong, Stephen Wright, Kay Johnson, Matthew Pennington and Anne D’Innocenzio of The Associated Press; and by Arun Devnath, Rakteem Katakey, Lindsey Rupp, Renee Dudley, Julie Cruz, Santanu Chakraborty, Adi Narayan, Stephanie Wong, Sarah Shannon and Mehul Srivastava of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/28/2013