Ferry death counts swell to 84

Bhola, Dec 02 (bdnews24.com)--Another seven dead bodies on Wednesday were pulled from the sunken ferry, MV Coco-4, taking the death counts up to 84, half of which are children. Four of them were identified as 'Jhumur', 8, Manjura Begum, 18, 'Mohsin' 30, and 'Taiyab', 22. The other three bodies were beyond recognition. Rescue vessels MV Rustam and MV Hamza recovered those bodies from the engine room after a three-hour search starting from 9am. MV Coco-4 partially capsized last Friday, the night before Eid-ul-Azha, at Nazirpur river station in Lalmohan, some 40 km from Bhola district town. The vessel, crowded from hull to decks with people heading home to celebrate the holiday with families, began tipping with the weight of disembarking passengers and partially sank, according to eye witnesses. The death toll rose to 77 by Tuesday, with a further 40 passengers still unaccounted for, by official estimates. The 600-capacity ferry was carrying more than 1500 passengers from Dhaka to Lalmohon. The local administration said around 40 people were missing, but volunteers said the number could be over a hundred. Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan said on Wednesday the two sons of opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia--Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman Coco--will be sued as they owned MV Coco-4. Three BIWTA officials were suspended for ignoring responsibilities regarding the launch tragedy, as rescue vessel MV Hamza was late in reaching the accident spot, a shipping ministry statement said on Tuesday. The Hamza, a salvage and rescue vessel of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, setting off from bordering district Barisal on Saturday morning, took more than 24 hours to arrive on the scene. It began its operations on Sunday morning, some 36 hours after the accident, righting the capsized ferry, allowing rescue workers to better reach the hull. The sacked officials are Md Abdur Razzaque, director of the waterway conservancy division, Md Shahjahan, a senior deputy director of the div bdnews24.com/corr/aj/mi/adk/bd/1822h.