MV Bipasa salvaged, death toll 32

The death toll from Thursday’s launch accident in the River Meghna in Brahmanbaria rose to 32 with the recovery of five more bodies as rescue operation was called off after MV Bipasa was salvaged on Friday morning.Rescuers on Friday recovered two bodies from inside the launch while three bodies were found floating in the river near the spot of the accident. Locals, divers from Fire Service and Civil Defence and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority retrieved 27 bodies on Thursday. The rescue operation was called off Friday afternoon after BIWTA’s rescue vessel MV Rustom salvaged the ill-fated MV Bipasa at around 11:00am as the authorities thought there was little chance of recovering any more bodies from the spot.The double-decker MV Bipasa bound for Sunamganj from Bhairab with more than 200 passengers sank in Meghna at around 2:00am Thursday after it ran into a submerged trawler that had sunk in the river two weeks ago.Brahmanbaria deputy commissioner Abdul Mannan told New Age on Friday afternoon that the rescue vessel, Rustom, pulled the launch from a depth of 60 feet under water and called off their operation at around 1:00pm.He said no more people approached the authorities with claims for missing relatives.

He said that the authorities had handed over 28 bodies to relatives for burial.Brahmanbaria additional superintendent of police Faisal Mahmud said, ‘We don’t think there is anyone else missing.’Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan on Friday visited the spot and announced compensation for the victims’ families as per government rules.Families which have lost one member in the tragedy would get Tk 30,000 each while those who have lost more than one member would get Tk 45,000 each. Besides, the district administration had given Tk 2,000 to each of the families for burial of the dead. Most of the victims were from Kishoreganj and Bhairab.Sarail police officer-in-charge Zahirul Islam Khan told New Age that the launch was overloaded and many of the passengers had managed to swim ashore.Sarail upazila nirbahi officer MD Helal Uddin said that identities of four deceased could not be known. ‘If we fail to identify the four victims, the bodies would be buried by the administration in the area,’ he said.BIWTA chairman Abdul Malek Miah said that the accident had occurred due to negligence of its master.Hasan Mahmud Tareq, who heads the three-member probe committee formed by BIWTA, said that they were going to start investigation to find out the reason for the accident. The committee has been asked to submit its report in seven days.