Police have decided to conduct DNA tests to confirm the identities of the two bodies recovered after a fire at a slum in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar after a resident claimed them to be his wife and son..

The tests to match DNA samples from the victims and the man are necessary because the bodies became unidentifiable after the incident in the wee hours of Saturday, said Moshiur Rahman, chief of Tejgaon Industrial Area Police Station.

The fire destroyed around 300 shanties at the Mollabari slum next to Bangladesh Film Development Corporation, according to the Fire Service and Civil Defence.

Mizanur Rahman, a vegetable trader and resident of the slum, claimed the victims are his 22-year-old wife Parveen, identified with a single name, and their son Nafi Islam, according to Dulal Hossain, a police inspector.

He had left his family at home to buy vegetables at the Karwan Bazar market before the fire started. Upon hearing about the incident, he hurried back.

During a visit to the site, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Habibur Rahman said the cause of the fire was under investigation, considering possibilities such as an electrical short circuit or sabotage.

The DMP chief said the ownership of the land is also being investigated, because the owners might have had a motive to drive away the slum-dwellers, who faced difficulties escaping the fire because of a lack of space to move out.