The rescuers and the salvage ships could neither rescue the sunken launch, nor identify its location till 10:00 pm on Wednesday, about 60 hours after the capsize of the overloaded launch in the Padma River near Mawa Ghat at Lauhajang in Munshiganj at Monday morning.Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), Fire Brigade and Bangladesh Navy jointly launched a search together around six kilometer areas nearby the spot on Tuesday overnight. The areas spread to 15 kilometers on Wednesday. Two rescue vessels — ‘Rustam’ and ‘Nirbhik’ — reached the spot but they could not begin salvage operation as the launch could not be located due to strong currents in the turbulent river.Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Munshiganj Md Saiful Hasan said a special ship- ‘Kandari-2’- set to reach the spot from Chittagong for locating the sunken launch. They were desperately trying to locate and rescue the ill-fated vessel, he said. Meanwhile, bodies of 16 people, who were the passengers of the sunken launch- Pinak-6, have been found floating in the Meghna and Padma rivers in Munshiganj, Bhola, Chandpur, Shariatpur and Barishal districts till Wednesday evening. About 100 passengers were rescued alive while about 130 others remained missing since the launch capsized, according to the information centre set up by the district administration. Md Saiful Hasan told media that eleven more bodies were found floating in the rivers of Munshiganj, Bhola, Chandpur, Shariatpur and Barisal on Wednesday. Seven of the ill-fated were identified and handed over to their relatives. Bodies of two women — Hashi Begum, 50 and Nusrat Jahan Heera, 20–were handed over to their families on Tuesday.In Munshiganj, Fire Service personnel recovered a body of a woman in the afternoon from about two kilometers far from the spot where the launch capsized. Locals also recovered another body from the area in the same time, BIWTA official Faisalur Rahman conformed the news. In Bhola, the bodies of five launch capsize victims were recovered from separate points of the Meghna River. Among them, the body of a college student, Faizul Karim Fahad, 23, son Lutfar Rahman Akhand of Katalia in Jhalakati was found floating at Sadar upazila in the morning. Besides, the bodies of four unidentified people were recovered from separate places of the same river.In Shariatpur, police recovered the bodies of two women and a man from the Padma River in Wapda area of Naria upazila in the morning. The women deceased were identified as Ima Akther, a student of Motijheel Ideal College, and Jannatul Naeem Lucky, 22, Daughter of Haji Abdul Jabbar Sarder of Chabbishpara village under Jajirapur upazila in Sariatpur. Lucky is the niece of Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan. Heera, a student of city’s Sikder Medical College who recovered on Monday, was also another niece of the minister. Heera’s sister Fatematuz Johra Swarna is yet to be traced.Naria upazila project implementation officer Gobindra Chandra Roy said that Lucky’s body was recovered at noon while another body of a male was recovered some minutes later from the Meghna River. Acamp has been built at Pathchor Government Primary High School under the upazila for keeping the recovered bodies, he added.In Chandpur, two more bodies were found in the river Meghna at Haimchar Upazila. Haimchar Police Station OC Md Maniruaman said that two bodies, one of which is a female, were found at Majhirbazar union and Miahbazar areas. Another corpse was spotted on Wednesday afternoon in the river near Raj Rajeshwar area of the Sadar Upazila.In Barisal, police recovered a woman’s body near the Laharhat ferry landing station of the Sadar Upazila. Barisal Port Police Station’s OC Rezaul Karim said that it might be one of the Pinak-6 victims and that they were contacting Munshiganj in connection with the recovery. The anger people are brewing up among relatives of the missing people, who have been in wait at the Mawa Ghat from the day of incident, as they could not yet show any sign of improvement in the rescue drive.
