Eleven more bodies found after Rohingya boat capsize

Police recovered the bodies of eleven more Rohingyas who drowned after their boat capsized in Cox’s Bazar as they attempted to flee the military crackdown in Myanmar.

The bodies of four children and seven women were found on Tuesday, said Teknaf Police Station OC Md Moinuddin Khan.

“Thus far we have recovered 29 bodies from the boat that sank at the Naf River’s Golarchar Point at 10pm on Sunday. We believe they all lost their lives in the same incident.”

Police continued their search for more bodies.

Local residents gather around bodies of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, who were killed when their boat capsized on the way to Bangladesh, in Shah Porir Dwip, in Teknaf, near Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh Oct 9, 2017. Reuters

On Aug 25, members of the insurgent Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) attacked 30 police posts and a military camp in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The Myanmar military then began a crackdown in the region that has forced over 500,000 Rohingyas to flee across the border into Bangladesh.

The UN has described the operation as ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Bodies of several Rohingyas have washed up on Bangladesh’s shores since the start of the latest violence.

On Sept 28, a boat carrying about 80 refugees overturned with only 17 survivors.

In early September, 46 bodies were recovered after a boat sank in the narrow stretch of water that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh. Among the dead were 19 children, 18 women and nine men.