9 missing as boat sinks in Meghna
At least nine people, including six children, went missing yesterday morning after a motorised boat capsized having collided with an oil-laden vessel in the Meghna river in Chandpur.
The collision took place in the middle of the river at Haimchar upazila because of poor visibility caused by dense fog, locals and witnesses said.
The boat, MV Robin, sailed from Telirmor area of Haimchar around 9:00am with more than 50 passengers to Ishanbala of the same upazila. One kilometre down the river, the boat met dense fog shrouding the distance ahead and then it collided with the oil-laden vessel, passengers said.
After the accident, Rafiq, who was fishing nearby, came to the victims' rescue.
“I heard a loud bang but could not see anything due to fog. As I moved towards the scene with my boat, I saw people swimming and screaming for help.”
He then pulled as many as 40 people onto his boat and started searching for the missing ones. But his boat was too small to carry as many number of passengers and so it turned upside down, Rafiq said.
Then other fishermen rescued them, he added.
Meanwhile, some passengers of the motorboat swam ashore.
A team from Fire Service and Civil Defence reached the spot around 1:00pm while coastguards and river police reached there around 2:00pm and 3:00pm.
As of the filing of the report at 9:30pm, they were yet to locate the capsized boat and identify the oil tanker, which fled the scene after the collision.
Ratan Kumar Nath, deputy director of the fire service, Chandpur, said, "We are continuing our operation to rescue the missing people and locate the motorboat."
The rescue operation was facing difficulties due to strong current and wind in the river, rescuers said.
Relatives and family members gave police the names of those who went missing after the accident.
They are Ahmed Ullah, 44, Nargis, 28, and her two children Shahjada, 6, and Fahim Hossain, 1, Alia Begum, 25, and her two children Siam, 6, and Swapna, 3, and Mostafa Mridha's two children Ratan, 2, and Manik, 4.
Three people -- Shyamoli, 24, Abdul Karim, 55, and Sumon, 25 -- sustained injuries during the collision. They were admitted to a local hospital.
The motorboat owner Abdul Kadir, of Charkrishnapur of Haimchar, went into hiding.
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