Hope fading for Pinak-6

The hopes of salvaging Pinak-6 are getting thinner by the hour.

The ferry that sank in the Padma near Munshiganj on Monday morning with around 350 passengers has not been found in 36 hours.

After rescue vessel Rustam, Nirvik has also reached the spot.

A total of 15 vessels including ships, tugboats and speedboats are now looking for Pinak-6.

Despite heavy monsoon currents, Fire Service is trying to locate the launch by the traditional method of dragging anchors, while 27 of their divers are in the water constantly.

Navy, RAB and police helicopters are scouring the river from the sky.

And yet by the end of the day, BIWTA Chairman Shamsuddoha Khandaker had to announce that there were no “positive outcomes” from the salvage operation.

On Tuesday night several vessels launched a combined search operation called “ladder scanner search”.

After three hours of search, Navy Captain Nazrul Islam told reporters the vessels had searched the area in a 36km radius from the place where the launch sank.

The captain thinks the launch may be gathering silt since it is small and made mostly of wood.

“In that case it won’t be spotted by side scan sonar,” he said.

The sonar equipment at hand can scan down to 75 feet under water. The equipment from Jarip-10 can scan as deep as 250 feet.

The salvage workers are therefore hoping that new developments could be made when the equipment arrive.

Rescue workers did not find any bodies on Tuesday. On Monday two bodies were fished out.

Around 100 passengers were rescued alive by speedboats that rushed to the sinking vessel.

According to a list made by Louhajang Police Station based on missing reports by families, there are 169 passengers still unaccounted-for.

All parties are now waiting for the arrival of a sidescan sonar, a GPS and a subbottom propeller from Chittagong port that are used in ocean surveys.

A tugboat, Kandari-2, is bringing the equipment to Munshiganj. Survey vessel Jarip-10, to which these machines belonged, started from the port but had to turn back because of the weather.

Pinak-6 sank on its way to Mawa from Kewrakandi.

Salvage workers are saying as time passes the chances are that the launch is getting dragged away by currents much further.

If it gets stuck somewhere on the river bed, chances are that it will soon be covered in silt.

BIWTA chief Khandaker said, “The launch has to have gone downstream because of the heavy currents. We’re searching with side scanners in a 20 km area but there are no positive outcomes as yet.”

169 missing

Louhajang Police Station OC Tofazzal Hossain told bdnews24.com until Tuesday evening they made a list of 169 people who were still untraced based on complaints from the realtives.

Earlier in the day, Munshiganj DC Md Saiful Hasan Badal had said the local administration had a list of 127 lost people.

Two deceased identified

One of the deceased found floating on the river Monday has been identified as Hashi Begum, 50, of Madaripur's Shibchar Upazila. She was on her way to Tongi with her brother 'Hannan'.

The other person was identified as Nusrat Jahan Heera, 20. She was a second-year MBBS student at Shikdar Medical College in Dhaka.

Heera was buried at her ancestral home at Kaderpur in Shibchar Upazila on Monday night.

Two bodies in Meghna

Two unidentified bodies, floating on Meghna River, were retrieved from Chandpur’s Haimchar Upazila on Tuesday.

Police suspect one of the deceased could be a victim of the Pinak-6 launch disaster.

Police recovered the bodies of a man and a woman after locals at Madhyachar of Nilkomol Union saw them floating on the river, said Haimchar Police OC Md Moniruzzaman.

“The man’s body is decomposed and could be a few days old. The woman whose body we found might have been in the launch that sank in Munshiganj (Monday)."

Louhajang Assistant Commissioner (Land) Abul Kalam told bdnews24.com: “We’ve heard about the recovery of the bodies in Chandpur. But we are not sure if any launch-mishap victim is there."

BIWTA's Marine Safety and Traffic Management Director Md Jasim, who is leading the salvage operation at Mawa, said they were doing everything they can to recover the sunken launch or the dead bodies.

Case filed

BIWTA Transport Inspector Jahangir Bhuiyan on Tuesday lodged a case accusing six people including Pinak-6 owner AB Siddique Kalu, its pilot and helmsman of causing death by negligence.

They have been booked under the Sections 280, 282 and 304 (b) of the Bangladesh Penal Code for rash navigation, carrying people in unsafe or overloaded vessel, and causing death by rash driving in the case lodged at Louhajang Police Station.

Kalu is the Vice-President of the BNP's Medinimandal Union unit.

Launch owners’ association leaders said he was also a partner of the 'Mawa Express' launch service, which plies the Mawa-Kewrakandi river route.

Over 100 boarded midway

After visiting the accident site, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan told reporters, "We have found that the launch had around 170 people when it started from Kewrakandi. But it took on board more than 100 passengers at the Kathalbarhi launch terminal."

"If it had come to Mawa directly, it would not have capsized. Overloading of passengers is the main reason for this disaster," he added.

The government will take tough measures to prevent people’s lives being jeopardised, the minister said.

Louhajang police OC Tofazzal Hossain said the medium-sized, double-decker launch had the capacity for 120-150 passengers but it was carrying around 350 people at the time of the accident.

Anger swells up

Families who rushed to Munshiganj in the wake of the tragedy blocked the Mawa terminal for over an hour protesting against what they called negligence of the rescue workers.

They blocked the ferry terminal, creating a long tailback of vehicles. Some of them stood in front of the Padma Rest House and shouted slogans.

The deputy commissioner and senior officials later spoke to them and made them leave the terminal.

Families also attacked journalists working there, alleging that they were sending out false and confusing information.

A senior reporter and a cameraperson from a private TV channel was injured.

Large-scale operation

A team of 629 people are carrying out the salvage operation at Mawa, including 50 army personnel, 25 from the navy, 59 from the fire-service and civil defence, 225 policemen, 20 Coastguards personnel and 150 from the shipping ministry and BIWTA.

There are also workers and volunteers from the administration, health ministry, Red Crescent and other organisations.

A total of three side-scan sonars, two from the Navy and one from BIWTA, are being used to locate the launch.

Control Room

Madaripur Deputy Commissioner GS Jafarullah said the bodies rescued would be kept at the Pacchor Primary School grounds in Madaripur.

Moreover, two control rooms have been set up at the Kewrakandi ferry terminal and the Pacchor bus stand.

He said Shibchar had been chosen to keep the dead bodies since most of the passengers were from southern districts.