DHAKA: Bangladesh on Monday wrapped up the rescue campaign after 70 bodies were retrieved after Sunday’s ferry sinking in the Padma River.
“We are formally wrapping up the main rescue operations as the sunken launch [ferry] has been salvaged but searches for more bodies will continue for next few days as some people are still feared missing,” deputy commissioner of administrative chief central Manikganj district Rasheda Ferdous told a media briefing.
Her comments came hours after 24 bodies were found inside the sunken MV Mostafa after a rescue vessel fitted with cranes pulled the ferry up early this morning 16 hours after it capsized with more than 150 passengers on board.
The overloaded ferry sank following a collision with a cargo vessel as it was heading to Paturia from Daulatdia in Rajbari, located on the opposite bank of the river, about 135km (85 miles) west of the capital Dhaka.
Ferdous said the fire service, river police and other concerned agencies would keep a vigil on the river in search of more bodies for the next few days as according to relatives at least nine more people were still missing since the ferry sank.
Officials said 63 bodies were handed over to relatives while the TV footages showed people crowding on the both sides of the river and crying in agonies as they received the inflated bodies of the victims.
A private TV channel showed a young married woman in tears as rescue workers brought bodies of three members of her family into the terminal with one being her one-month-old baby sister.
“They all had their lunch at my home (near the ferry terminal) and then boarded the ferry,” she said.
Journalists who were covering the rescue campaign said hours after the ferry sank, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) rescue vessel Rustom joined the salvage at 11.30pm last night and retrieved the ferry at 4 this morning.
A rescue official said the disaster eventually appeared more tragic in terms of toll than it was thought initially “when we had an idea only few passengers remained to be drowned as nearly 100 people were rescued alive”.
Officials earlier said they had no idea about the exact number of passengers on board as operators of private ferries, which also lack safety standards, usually do not maintain formal passenger lists.
MV Mostafa is rated to carry 140 passengers, but officials said they now thought it was carrying nearly 200 people on board while survivors said it sank within two minutes after being hit by the cargo and was submerged at a depth of up to 6 meters.
Officials said most of the survivors were on the open deck who jumped off the ferry or fell into the water as it was struck but others who were inside the cabins visibly was trapped there as it capsized.
Police seized cargo vessel Nargis 1, which ran head on into the side of the ferry causing it to capsize and arrested shipmaster Iqbal and his assistant Shahidul while the government formed a three-member committee to investigate into the disaster and expose the people responsible to justice.
Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, however, said according to their initial understanding the collision occurred as the boat was “in a race” with other vessels on the river.
Bangladesh has a history of ferry tragedies and this was the second deadly accident in less than a fortnight in the country while a nearly identical tragedy seven people killed on February 13 in another incident of capsize.
About 50 people were killed in August last year when a crowded ferry sank in rough weather in the Munshiganj district while in the March in 2012 some 150 people were killed after a overcrowded ferry carrying about 200 passengers sank after being hit by an oil barge in the dead of night.
