Sigachi: UP Parents Seek Closure For Sons
As many as 33 persons are still under treatment, several of them in critical condition, while nine remain untraced.
Hyderabad:The elderly parents of two missing workers from Sigachi Industries Ltd travelled from Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad — carrying a faint hope that DNA tests might help prove that their sons, Akhilesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar, might have survived the explosion at the Pashamylaram unit six days ago.
The death toll in the blast rose to 40 on Saturday after Mannan, a severely injured worker from Odisha, died while undergoing treatment in a private hospital in Patancheru. As many as 33 persons are still under treatment, several of them in critical condition, while nine remain untraced.
Authorities continue collecting DNA samples from relatives of the missing to help identify the human remains recovered from the blast site. Among those still unaccounted for are Akhilesh Kumar and Vijay Kumar, brothers from Uttar Pradesh who had been working at the unit for the past 12 years.
On the day of the tragedy, both men reported for duty as usual but never returned. After the explosion, only partial human remains were recovered from the site. Mortuary staff suspected the remains could belong to the brothers and requested their families to submit DNA samples for verification.
Akhilesh’s son, Abhishek Kumar, had earlier travelled from Uttar Pradesh to the Patancheru Government Hospital to submit his DNA sample. “Officials requested further samples from the victims’ parents. It’s the first time they have travelled by flight, coming all the way from their village in Uttar Pradesh to Hyderabad," said Pavan Nishad, a colleague at Sigachi Industries who was recruited by the missing brothers.
The authorities continue to rely on DNA testing to identify the deceased and bring closure to grieving families.