At least 14 persons, including women and children, died and many others went missing when a launch carrying nearly 250 passengers capsized during a nor’wester in the river Meghna in Gozaria upazila in Munshiganj district on Thursday. ‘MV Miraz-4’ sank into the river around 3:30 pm in Doulatpur area of the upazila on its way to Sureshwar in Shariatpur from Sadarghat, Deputy Commissioner of Munshiganj Md. Saiful Hasan Badal told reporters.Members of the Coast Guard pulled out the bodies of the ill-fated launch from the river after the accident. Besides, around 50 passengers were also rescued alive from the river. Some passengers, however, managed to swim ashore while many others are still missing. But the number of the missing passengers could not be known immediately. DC Saiful Hasan Badal, acting SP Jakir Hossain and other high officials of the district were on the spot and supervising rescue operation still filing of this report at 9:30 pm. Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan also visited the spot of accident. Meanwhile, a three-member committee has been formed to investigate the cause of the launch capsize.Abdur Razzak, a rescued passenger, said that the launch sank within three minutes after the nor’wester hit it. Some of the deceased were identified while identities of some other deceased could not the known immediately. The identified deceased are: Mamal Hossain, 50, of Pachgaon village under Noria upazila of Shariatpur, Tumpa Begum, 30, wife of Liton Mia, Setar Begum, 50, Jamal Shikder, 55, and his son Abid Shikder, 28 of Sureshwar of Shariatpur. Drowned Tumma’s husband managed to swim ashore but their two sons — Sumon, 8, and Mahim, 2, remained missing. Rescue ships — Prottoy and Durbar — from Narayanganj joined rescue operation of the capsized launch. The rescue vessels reached the spot hours after the incident. Police, Coast Guard personnel, teams of Fire Service and Navy took part in the rescue operation. Locals also took part in the rescue operation immediately after the incident. Just 12 days ago on May 3, another passenger launch capsized in Golachipa in Patuakhali leaving 16 persons dead.
