B’baria Boat Capsize: 9 children among 22 dead

Nine children, among the total 22 victims, were killed in the boat capsize at Laishka Beel in Brahmanbaria on Friday evening.

Those children could not come out of the boat as most of them and women were inside the boat that was carrying around 100 people, witnesses said.

Among the rest of the deceased, 11 were women and two were men.

Meanwhile, five staffers of two sand-carrying vessels that hit and capsized the boat were arrested following a case over the incident.

The boat left Champaknagar area for Brahmanbaria town and collided with a small dinghy and its boatman lost control.

The boat was then hit by two sand-carrying vessels coming from the opposite direction and capsized, said survivors and witnesses.

One of the causes of the accident was carrying excessive passengers in the engine run boat, said Faruque Mia, a passenger who survived the accident.

Selim Mia, who lost four relatives, filed a case against seven staffers of two sand-carrying vessels with Bijaynagar Police Station under The Inland Shipping Ordinance, 1976 and Penal Code, said Imtiaz Ahmed, officer-in-charge of police's special branch in Brahmanbaria.

Five of the accused -- Jamir Mia, the master of one of the vessels; his two associates Khokon Mia, Rasel Mia, and two staffers of another vessel Mistu Mia and Solaiman Mia -- were so far arrested, he said.

Police also seized two sand-carrying vessels involved in the accident.

Meanwhile, the fire service stopped the rescue operation till writing of this report in the evening confirming the death of 22 people in the incident.

Akhtaruzzaman, assistant director of the Fire Service and Civil Defense in Brahmanbaria, said no one else was missing in the boat sinking incident.

However, if anyone claims that their relatives are still missing, we will conduct a rescue operation again, he added.