Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan has blamed 'mother nature' for the failure to locate sunken passenger vessel Pinak-6 that went down in the Padma River last month with over 250 people on board.
Published : 01 Sep 2014, 09:53 PM
He made the claim when answering a question by reserved seat MP Selina Jahan Lita on Monday who asked whether the failure to find Pinak was administrative or technological.
"It's neither," Khan replied. "Rather it's a natural cause."
Local administration called off the search and rescue operations on Aug 11, eight days after the vessel sunk at Munshiganj's Mawa.
Rescuers recovered 48 bodies while the official figure put the number of missing at 61.
"The launch could not be recovered mainly because of turbulence in the river, strong current and whirlpool, large amount of silt carried by the current and rough weather," the minister said.
A 'metallic object' roughly the length of Pinak-6 was detected underwater but divers could not get to it.