Another body recovered from Meghna launch capsize

Another dead body was recovered from the Meghna River on Sunday, four days after passenger vessel MV Miraj-4 sank at Munshiganj’s Gazaria.

Gazaria UNO ATM Mahbub Karim in the evening said the body of a male passenger was found floating on the river nearly one kilometre south of the scene of accident.

The man was yet to be identified, he added. The latest recovery has taken the death toll to 56.

The local administration is still contuining search for the rest of the passengers missing.

The inquiry team, which visited the spot on Sunday, said the substitute master of the launch was at the helm when it capsized Thursday evening with over 200 passengers on board.

It was caught in a storm near Gazaria’s Doulatpur.

The chief master was on leave, said AFM Sirajul Islam, Chief Engineer at Department of Shipping and head of the investigation committee.

The stand-in master has also died in the accident.

Earlier, 55 bodies were recovered and handed over to their families.

But families of those missing are waiting at the bank of Meghna to find their loved ones even after four days.

However, Munshiganj Superintendent of Police Md Jakir Hossain Majumder said no case was filed over the accident, though it was an offence under the criminal law.

But no passengers or their relatives or BIWTA had lodged any case until now.

Majumder said they would wait another day and if no one filed a complaint, police would lodge a case at Gazaria, he added.

Monday 19 May 2014

http://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2014/05/19/another-body-recovered-from-meghna-launch-capsize