Two more bodies of Meghna trawler mishap victims recovered

The death toll in Wednesday’strawler capsize in Munshiganj’s Meghna River has increased to three.

Two more bodies, including one of a three-year-old, have been recovered on Thursday morning.

The child has been identified as ‘Munia’ while the other body of a youth is yet to be identified, said Munshiganj’s Additional Superintendent of Police  ABM Masud Hossain.

“It can’t be said now how many are missing. The bodies have been kept at the Baushiya landing point,” he said.

The bodies were spotted on the river near Mollakandi area of the district’s Gazaria Upazila on Thursday.

The mishap occurred around8pm on Wednesday near Bhasanchar at  Gazaria, police said, quoting witnesses.

A sand-laden cargo vessel had crashed into the trawler, which was carrying at least 75 passengers, in the river’s estuarial point between Bhasanchar, Mollakandi and Chandpur’s Nabipura, said Gazaria police’s Sub-Inspector Md Habibur Rahman.

He said both vessels were spotted later around half a kilometre from the scene of the accident near the riverbank.

Witnesses said the cargo vessel had hit the trawler at the front. Driver and the crew had abandoned the cargo vessel and fled right away.

One of the passengers of the ill-fated trawler, ‘Pias’, 25, said that it was on its way to Chandpur’s Beltoli.

He managed to swim ashore along with many others, but said he could not find his 3-year old niece.

Rescue operations started in the night, when the body of a youth, believed to be in his mid-20s, was found trapped between the two vessels.