Sadarghat boat capsize: Rescue workers find body of Shahida Begum, raising death toll to six

Rescue workers have recovered the body of another victim of the boat capsize on the Buriganga River in Dhaka’s Sadarghat, raising the death toll from the accident to six.

The body of the missing woman Shahida Begum was found around 10:15 am on Sunday in the river near the Kaliganj Alam Tower, said River Police Sadarghat Police Station OC Abdur Razzak.

It was the sixth body recovered after the boat capsized on Thursday.

Shahida’s husband, Shahjalal Mia, 38, lost both feet in the accident after they got entangled in a launch propeller and is currently receiving treatment at the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation, popularly known as Pongu Hospital.

Shahjalal and other members of the family had taken a boat from Keraniganj’s Kaliganj to the Sadarghat in Dhaka on Thursday night. They were headed for a wedding in Shariatpur.

According to River Police Sadarghat Outpost OC Abdur Razzak, their boat overturned near pontoon-13 when it was struck by the Survi-7 launch.

Shahjalal’s feet were severed by the launch’s propellers at the time. A river police patrol managed to rescue him but six others went missing after the accident.

The fire service, the BIWTA and the river police then began searching for the other victims.

The body of Shahjalal’s sister Jamsheda, 21, was recovered on Friday afternoon in South Keraniganj’s Hasnabad area.

The bodies of Shahida and Shahjalal’s son Mahi, 6, their daughter Mim, 8, Jamsheda’s husband Delowar, 28, and their six-month-old son Junaid were found on Saturday by rescue workers.

BIWTA Dhaka Port Joint Director AKM Arif Uddin told reporters on the night of the accident that the boat passengers had been trying to board the launch from the back in a risky manner at the time of the accident and the waves left in the wake of the launch overturned the boat

The BIWTA has formed a three-member panel to investigate the cause of the accident.