Staff Reporter :In a span of 16 hours, at least 12 people drowned and many others went missing in two separate trawler capsize incidents in the rivers Buriganga in Keraniganj and Meghna in Munshiganj due to collision with other vessel from opposite directions.Eyewitness sources said, at least eight people drowned and many others remained missing following a collision with a sand-laden bulkhead vessel in the river Buriganga near Aliganj under South Keraniganj Police Station in Dhaka district on Thursday afternoon.The Dhaka-bound trawler, carrying around 70 passengers on board from Matlab in Chandpur district, sank in the Buriganga as a result of the collision.Of the deceased, four were identified as Mohammad Somir Hossain, 45, Rubel, 18, Rubel (another), 30, Zakir Hossain, 28, and Sagar, 11. The identity of three other victims could not be known yet. Earlier on Wednesday night, another trawler sank in the river Meghna in Munshiganj’s Gozaria upazila leaving four passengers dead and missing of 14 others.Talking to The New Nation on Thursday, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, on Thursday admitted that they had no control over the trawlers due to shortage of manpower.”Having no registrations, hundreds of trawlers are plying on the waterways throughout the country. It is very difficult for us to monitor water vessels. But as the nor’wester may strike anytime during this month, we have already asked the authority concerned to monitor the water vessels,” said the minister. Soon after the Keraniganj incident, police of both Keraniganj and Fatullah thanas rushed to the spot and started rescue operation along with fire service personnel and divers. “When a sand-laden bulkhead vessel rammed into the trawler at about 12.45pm on Thursday,” Officer-in-Charge of South Keraniganj Police Station said. He said a large number of grief stricken relatives gathered on both sides of the river Buriganga in search of their missing near and dear ones.In the other incident, with the recovery of three more bodies on Thursday, the death toll in the trawler disaster in the river Meghna in Munshiganj rose to four and more than 14 passengers are still missing.Biplob Bijoy Talukder, Superintendent of Police, Munshiganj told The New Nation on Thursday that when a Dhaka-bound bulkhead vessel dashed the Chandpur-bound engine driven trawler with around 76 passengers on board, it sank in the river Meghna on Wednesday night. “We have recovered four bodies so far and 14 others have still remained missing,” he said, adding, members of law enforcing agencies, firefighters and volunteers continued the rescue operation.”Out of four, two deceased were identified and their bodies were handed over to their relatives,” he said. The three bodies were found floating on early Thursday. The Police super said that the families of the deceased would be given Tk 20,000 each as compensation”Most of the passengers swam ashore while some other were4 rescued,” he said.Quoting a survivor, the police super said the trawler left from Baushia Launch terminal bridge at 7:30pm on Wednesday. “The incident took place during a storm,” the police super said.
