SIX students of Ahsanullah University of the capital lost their lives in the high sea waves at St Martin’s Island on Monday, the day of Pohela Boishakh as they were part of a group of 34 students of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to celebrate the end of their final year examination. It is indeed a big tragedy and we blame the foolish excitement of the students in the first place, they should have been warned by the families and friends of the dangers of the sea before they went out on the trip. We also equally blame the failure of the watch guards at the sea beach; they should have warned the visitors as a matter of routine and the students as such about the danger that could have awaited them in case they made a wrong move in the beach. Young people are giving their lives on the sea beaches every year but the tragic recurrences are not coming to a stop because of the indifference of both the visitors to the dangers and the failures of the guards watching the sea line as well.
We feel really bewildered to accept the fact that the students had gone out to celebrate the end of their varsity careers but ended up in a tragedy where they lost their lives while swimming in the beach at a wrong point. It was the time when the tide was moving downward and they got trapped in quick sand and lost lives in the overbearing waves. We share the grief of the bereaved families. They raised the children through many hardships and gave them the best education and it was not comprehensible that a tragedy of such dimension would wash away their every hope and dream that they were nurturing of their children.
Reports said two students were reported dead on Monday while four remained missing. Navy and Coast Guard on Wednesday recovered two more bodies while search for the remaining two is on. Locals said the students who were not familiar with the sea condition at St Martin’s went to the sea at Prince Point which sits on the rough side of the sea and is thus risky for swimmers. The students immediately fell to the waves. Fishermen rescued four of the victims; and two of them died immediately after the recovery. Two others are now receiving treatment at Cox’s Bazar hospital.
The most pertinent question here is that if the Prince Point in the St Martin is really dangerous to swimmers why do not the Navy or Coast Guard or such other duty men from the local administration keep their appropriate presence in the sea line and hang on red alert signals to keep visitors away from going into swimming at the spot. A small neglect may cost so dearly and that is what has happened. We see that people are routinely neglecting to work seriously at the place of their posting and such tragedies are occuring as a result of it. We ask the government to make the sea line in the beach safe – be it at Cox’s Bazar or St Martin by using appropriate preventive steps to stop the recurrence of tragic incidents.
