Rescue hope fades

The 26 people, who had gone down with the FV Bandhan in the Bay of Bengal early Friday, remained missing even after 32 hours.

Divers of Bangladesh Navy, however, located the sunken fishing vessel yesterday morning, but could not enter it due to stormy currents. The missing crews are feared dead and the bodies are trapped inside the vessel.

Navy ship BNS Adamya reached the spot from Chittagong in the wee hours of yesterday and joined the search and rescue operation.

BNS Adamya's side-scan sonar detected an object like the vessel around 9:00am, said Commander Shamim Md Khan, in-charge of Navy Intelligence (Chittagong zone).

Around 11:00am, Navy divers reached the vessel and found it tilted on its right side around a kilometre from the accident spot.

The divers managed to hook a rope to the sunken vessel so that they could reach the spot easily next time. However, they could not enter it, said Commander Shamim.

The divers will now try to cut through the doors and windows of the vessel to see if any body is trapped inside, he added.

Three more navy ships -- BNS Bangabandhu, BNS Sagor and BNS Khadem -- joined BNS Somudro Joy, BNS Atandra and BNS Adamya in the search yesterday morning.

Apart from these, navy salvage ship BNS Saikat was dispatched from Chittagong around 2:00pm.

Meanwhile, two rescued crews of the vessel -- Sajib Hasan, 25, and Lavlu, 28 -- and the body of Nasir Uddin, 40, were brought to Patenga Jetty No- 15 on a fishing vessel around 11:00am.

Later, Lavlu told reporters that their vessel turned upside down after being hit by Bashundhara-8, a merchant vessel. He then found himself beneath the vessel and managed to swim out of it. He also found Nasir, who was injured in the collision, trying to stay afloat.

"We both tried to hold on to a side of the sinking vessel but it was going down fast. Then we found a plank and grabbed it to stay afloat," said Lavlu.

They swam for about half an hour in the dark cold sea but at one stage Nasir gave up in exhaustion.

Lavlu then tied Nasir with himself with a piece of cloth and swam for around two hours before the two were rescued by the crew of a fishing trawler -- Shatabdi.

Junior Officer Sajib was on duty at the bridge of the vessel on that fateful night while most of the crew were sleeping.

"After noticing Bahundhara-8 heading towards us, we sent messages through radio and tried to draw its attention with our powerful lights as well but got no response."

"It then directly hit us and I fell unconscious," Sajib said, adding that he found himself aboard the Shatabdi after he woke up.

Marine Fisheries Office, Chittagong, an associated office of the Department of Fisheries, formed a five-member probe body led by its Deputy Director Mariam Sultana to investigate the accident.

The committee has been asked to submit its report by seven working days, said Director Nasiruddin Md Humayun.