Latest Reports on the Plasco Incident: 'The Bodies of Six Missing Individuals Have Yet to Be Discovered'

Two days after the excavation operations of the Plasco building's remains concluded, the Shahrvand newspaper reported that the bodies of six missing citizens from this incident have still not been found, and the bodies of four individuals working in this complex have been buried 'in silence.' The newspaper reported in its Sunday, February 10 issue that on Thursday, the body of Haidar, on Friday the body of Javad, and on Friday the body of Habib, three individuals working in the Plasco building, were buried. The report did not mention the last names of these individuals. Haidar's nephew told Shahrvand that at 1 PM on the day of the incident, his uncle sent a text message to one of the foremen saying they were trapped in the engine room. He stated that ultimately, on Sunday night, the bodies of three individuals were found burned, and therefore DNA tests were taken from his cousin and other families of the Plasco victims to identify them. Previously, there were reports of text messages sent by some individuals trapped in the engine room of the Plasco building, but fire department officials denied these reports, and ultimately no missing person was found alive. Another relative of Haidar also told Shahrvand that 'two million and six hundred and forty thousand tomans' were spent for his grave and tombstone. Meanwhile, the Iran newspaper reported that Behesht Zahra received two million tomans from the 'Haidar Pahlevani' family for burial costs, and after this issue was published on social media, this money was returned to his family. Previously, municipal officials announced that Behesht Zahra would not charge for the burial of the Plasco disaster victims. Meanwhile, Habib's son, another worker killed in this incident, stated that his father's body is to be transferred to his birthplace, and the municipality paid one million and 86 thousand tomans for the funeral expenses. The Shahrvand newspaper's report stated that there is no information regarding the fate of six missing individuals from this incident, including Ghasem Shojaei, the guard of the Plasco building. The publication of this report comes as the search and debris removal operations of the Plasco building's remains concluded after nine days on Friday, February 8, with a total of 15 firefighters and four citizens recovered from the rubble. The day before, Gholamali Karimi, the deputy of the Tehran police, stated that investigations regarding the six missing individuals from this incident are ongoing. On Saturday, Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, appointed a special committee consisting of academic figures with expertise in civil engineering, insurance, law, and urban management to prepare a national report on the Plasco incident. In this regard, the head of Mr. Rouhani's office announced that the first meeting of this committee was held on Sunday with the presence of the Mayor of Tehran, the head of the Foundation of the Oppressed, the Tehran prosecutor, and the ministers of interior, labor and social welfare, roads and urban development, and justice. Mohammad Nahavandian considered 'political and factional motives a major plague in macro and national issues' and emphasized that this committee 'is never seeking to assign blame' and its most important goal is 'to provide solutions and structural and managerial reforms' to prevent similar incidents in the future. According to Clause 14 of Article 55 of the Municipalities Law, the municipality is responsible for removing dangers from at-risk buildings, and if the orders of this entity are not executed by the owners of at-risk buildings, this entity will take action to remove the danger itself and will collect the expenses plus 15% damages from the owners. The owner of the Plasco building is the Foundation of the Oppressed, an economic entity under the leadership of the Islamic Republic, and in recent days some news sources have claimed that the Tehran municipality has refrained from sealing it for this reason. Meanwhile, some city council members, citing the trustees of the Plasco building, announced that the fire department inspected this building only 'once' and stated that 'the building's facilities are acceptable for crisis management, but it lacks a fire escape.' According to the trustees of the Plasco building, the cost of constructing this escape was the responsibility of the owner, namely the Foundation of the Oppressed, and for this reason, a fire department notice was issued to this foundation. Some comments regarding the culpability of the Foundation of the Oppressed and the Tehran municipality in the Plasco incident come as Ayatollah Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, stated in his message regarding the Plasco incident that 'currently all efforts must be directed towards saving the lives of those trapped' and 'investigating the causes of the incident is the next issue.' Mr. Khamenei also, in his second message on Sunday, while praising the firefighters killed in this incident, wrote: 'The grieving families and all the people of Iran should be proud of this determination and courage arising from faith, and experts should account for this phenomenon in their analyses and calculations regarding Iran and the faithful Iranian.' This incident is both tragic and honorable.' He also thanked the organizations that conducted the debris removal and search operations for the missing persons from the Plasco incident. In his second message, the leader of the Islamic Republic did not mention identifying potential culprits of the Plasco incident. Previously, some social media users criticized Ayatollah Khamenei's message regarding the Plasco incident by recalling his message about the train collision in Semnan, where he called for identifying the culprits of that incident.