Staff Reporter :
Divers in a rescue operation on Saturday recovered the bodies of four other family members, who went missing in a boat capsize in the Buriganga River on Thursday, raising the death toll to five.
The deceased have been identified as Meem, 8, and Mahi, 6, daughters of Shahjalal, hailing from Shariatpur district and Delwar, 38 and his seven-month old son Junayed, reports our Narayanganj Correspondent.
The body of minor girl Mahi was retrieved from the river around 8:00am while bodies of Delwar and his son Junayed were recovered around 11:30am, said Mostafa Mohsin, Coordinator of the joint diver team.
Later, the diver team retrieved the body of Meem around 12:30pm.
Earlier on Thursday, six members of a family, Shahjalal’s wife Shahida, 28, their two daughters Meem, and Mahi and Shahjalal’s sister Jamshida, her husband Delwar and their three-month-old son Junayed-went missing when a boat sank near the Sadarghat Launch Terminal around 10pm as the launch, ‘MV Suravi-7’ hit it. The Navy team recovered Jamshida’s body on Friday.They were residing in Kamrangirchar area of the city and going to the Launch Terminal to go to their home in Shariatpur district.
Shahjalal, 35, managed to swim ashore after the incident and got admitted to the Pongu Hospital as he lost his two legs during the accident.
Sadarghat River Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abdur Razzak said that Mahi’s body was recovered from the river near the Ahsan Manzil Museum around 8 am on Saturday.
Of the eight people who were on the boat, the boatman only managed to swim to safety, according to River Police.
The BIWTA has formed a three-member probe team led by BIWTA Director Md Shahjahan to look into the incident. The team has asked three working days to submit a report.
