Sunk in seconds

The ML Afsar Uddin, a small launch thought to have up to 50 people on board, left Narayanganj river terminal around 2:00pm. The weather was fine. The launch was cruising on the Shitalakkhya towards Munshiganj.

But just 15 minutes later, when the launch reached Char Syedpur area in Narayanganj Sadar upazila, horror struck the passengers as a large cargo vessel, the MV Rupshi-9, hit the launch. 

Panicked, passengers of the launch started jumping into the river as the cargo ship bore down on the small vessel. Within seconds, the launch sank with many of the passengers still in it.

On social media, distressing video footage, presumably taken by people on nearby boats, showing the launch being pushed by the ship on the busy river did the rounds soon after the incident.

At least six individuals died and 20 others went missing.

Rescuers identified three of the deceased as Jaynal Bhuiyan, 50, Arifa Begum, 35, and her 15-month-old baby Safayet Hossain.

Firefighters said the body of a girl aged around seven and that of two women, around 19 and 30 years old, were yet to be identified.

Contacted last night, Abdullah Al Arefin, deputy assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence in Narayanganj, said, "We assume that some 20 more people are missing. Our rescue operations are still going on."

Officers of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) said the cargo vessel was seized and 14 of its crew members were arrested.

Five bodies were recovered from inside the sunken launch, said Arefin, adding that Jaynal was among the 15 to 20 people who managed to swim ashore. But he appeared to have died of a cardiac arrest moments later.

Babu Lal Baidya, deputy director of BIWTA in Narayanganj, said the ML Afsar Uddin had the capacity to carry 80 people, but some 30 to 40 passengers were on board at the time.

Shakil Sheikh, who managed to swim ashore, said, "There were around 50 passengers in the launch. Some 20 to 25 could swim ashore. The rest, including women and children, drowned."

Sheikh Zakir Hossain, a survivor, told reporters, "We saw the cargo vessel come too close to our launch's stern. We warned our launch driver, who would not listen to us. The cargo vessel did not honk. Soon, it hit our launch and fled."

Hours later, police seized the MV Rupshi-9 from a dockyard in Munshiganj. The crew members, who had fled, were arrested later, said Moniruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Narayanganj River Police.

Lt Col Zillur Rahman, director (Operation & Maintenance) at the Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence, last evening said BIWTA's salvage boat reached the site around 10:00pm and began the operation to fish the launch out of water.

"There could be a few more bodies inside," he said.

The cargo vessel, owned by City Group, was registered with the Mercantile Marine Office in Chattogram in 2019.

Biswajit Saha, director (corporate and regulatory affairs) at City Group, refused to comment on the matter when this newspaper contacted him.

Captain Giashuddin Ahmed, principal officer at the Mercantile Marine Office, said, "It is a vessel of international standard. We inspected it in September and October last year and found everything okay."

Meanwhile, the shipping ministry formed a three-member committee led by Joint Secretary ANM Bazlul Rashid to investigate the incident and asked it to submit a report within three working days, said Jahangir Alam Khan, senior information officer of the ministry.

Rafiqul Islam, member secretary of the probe committee, told The Daily Star last night that the primary findings suggest that the accident might have been caused by the carelessness of crew members of the bigger vessel.

"The cargo vessel pilot might not have seen the launch or did not give due importance about the existence of the launch. Besides, it seems, the cargo vessel was at a relatively high speed," he said. "We are trying to find the specific cause of the accident."

The district administration formed a five-member probe committee led by additional district magistrate Shameem Bepari.

The administration announced that Tk 25,000 would be given to the family members of the deceased.

On April 8 last year, passenger vessel SKL-3 sank after being hit by a cargo vessel close to the same area, claiming 34 lives.

[Our correspondents in Narayanganj and Munshiganj contributed to the report]