12 killed in boat capsize

At least 12 people, including seven children, were killed and more than 50 injured as an overloaded passenger trawler capsized in the Arial Kha River in Raipura upazila of the district yesterday.

The thirty-foot-long and six-foot-wide engine boat with usual capacity of around 60 passengers was crammed with over 120 passengers, many of them women and children, said local sources.

Two engine boats, including the one that capsized, were headed for Gani Shah shrine at Barikanda of Nabinagar upazila under Brahmanbaria district with devotees from various villages of Raipura and Belabo upazilas, Azharul Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Raipura Police Station told this correspondent.

Abdul Hye, a member of Baroicha Union Parishad (UP) under Belabo upazila, hired the boats for the devotees, he added saying that one of the boats capsized around 11:30am with over 100 passengers on board. 

“The engine boat most likely sank due to a hole in its hull,” the OC observed.

Nearly half of its passengers managed to swim ashore, said locals.

Locals and fire service divers recovered the bodies of the dead before concluding the rescue operation in the evening, said Mohsin Prodhan, an official of Narsingdi Fire Service.

The 10 victims are Yasin,7, son of Abdul Quddus of Dewaner Char in Belabo upazila; Quddus' mother Majedar Nessa,50; Zerin, 6, daughter of  Sunder Ali of Baroicha village under Raipura upazila; Marzia, 40, daughter of Milon Mia of the same village; her mother Maleka Khatun, 50, Raqibul, 8, son of Rafiq Mia; Samrat, 8, son of Akhter; Rabbi, 6, son of Rafiq Mia of Baroicha village under Belabo; Jhinuk, 6, son of Sundar Ali; and Sumaiya, 7, daughter of Robiullah.

The identities of two others could not be known.

Police are trying to arrest the owner of the capsized boat and the UP member who hired the boats, said the OC.