Boat carrying pilgrims turns turtle killing 68 in Bangladesh
POLICE SAY VESSEL HEADED TO HINDU TEMPLE WAS CARRYING THREE TIMES ITS PERMITTED CAPACITY
RESCUERS recovered 17 bodies on Tuesday (27) after a boat overloaded with religious pilgrims capsized in Bangladesh, taking the death toll to 68, as anxious relatives waited for news of several passengers still missing.
Last Sunday’s (25) incident near the northern town of Boda was the deadliest maritime incident in years in the country, which is crisscrossed by rivers where overcrowding on aged vessels is common. Twenty-two of those killed were children, authorities said, with video footage suggesting some were as young as around four years old.
The small vessel was on its way to a popular temple when it flipped over in a river as onlookers screamed from the shore, in horrific scenes captured on mobile phones.
Boda police chief Sujay Kumar Roy said rescue workers, including firefighters, navy divers and villagers were searching for miles downstream on the Karotoa River, where the tragedy occurred.
The boat was carrying around 90 people, of whom around 50 were pilgrims on their way to the centuries-old Hindu temple for a major festival, according to police. “The rescuers found more than a dozen bodies downstream and also under the water. Still a few more people are missing,” Roy said.
Abdur Razzaque, a police inspector, said at least 30 of the dead were women.
“Among the fatalities, 67 people were Hindus and one was Muslim. We have handed over the bodies. The search has been suspended today and will resume tomorrow,” he said
“A committee has been formed to probe the incident,” he said, adding the country’s railway minister had visited the scene to oversee rescue efforts.
Dozens of relatives of those missing were still crowding the river bank on Tuesday, although most had left after authorities handed over their family members’ bodies.
“Three women of my family were missing since the boat capsized,” said one distraught relative, Bikash Chandra, late on Monday (26).
“We found one in the morning around
10 am, who was rescued earlier. But I couldn’t find the other two yet.”
“I just want to see the face of my mother,” Deepak Chandra Roy said, speaking through tears as he searched for his mother. His son was rescued.
Police on Tuesday said around 10 survivors were treated at the hospital before being sent home, police said.
District police chief Sirajul Huda said on Monday the boat was carrying three times its permitted capacity.
“There were heavy rains in the morning and that is why when the ferrying began, pilgrims packed the boat to make it
quickly to the temple,” he said.
“The boatman asked some people to disembark in an effort to ease the weightload. But no one listened,” he said.
Mobile phone footage aired by TV station Channel 24 showed the overcrowded boat suddenly flipping over, spilling the passengers into the muddy brown river.
Thousands of Hindus in Bangladesh visit the famous Bodeshwari Temple every year. Last Sunday marked the start of Durga Puja, a major Hindu festival drawing large crowds at the temple and when Hindus make offerings to their ancestors.