Bodies of 2 missing students recovered

Bodies of two of four students of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) missing off Saint Martin’s Island in Teknaf since Monday have been recovered.

The latest recovery puts the death toll at four as two students died earlier in hospital after they were rescued from sea in critical condition on Monday.

Navy and coast guards spotted the bodies in the north-west part of the island on Wednesday morning.

One body was recovered around 8:50am while the other body was found around 10:50am, said Md Kamruzzaman, petty officer of Coast Guard headquarters.

Coast Guard’s Teknaf Station Commander Lt Quazi Harun-ur Rashid said, “One of the bodies could be identified immediately as that of Shahriar Rahman Noman.

“We assumed the other body as Sabbir Hassan but his relatives said it was not Hassan’s body.

“Later we confirmed that it was the body of Golam Rahim Bappy,” Rashid said.

Search is on to find the other missing students, he said.

Noman was a resident of Dhaka’s Uttara while Bappy lived in Mymensingh’s Bhaluka.

Missing Sabbir Hassan lived in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur and Udoy Mahmud stayed in Basabo.

Earlier bdnews24.com correspondent reported that bodies of four missing students were recovered, but his report proved to be erroneous as the coast guard officials later confirmed recovery of two bodies.

Thirty-four students of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from the university had gone to the island, near Cox’s Bazar, on an excursion and had checked into local ‘Senjun Hotel’.

All of them went to the sea on Monday afternoon. Nine of them were swept away by a huge surge.

Locals and coast guards rescued five of them.

Two of those rescued – Monfezul Islam and Saddam Hossain – died later.