Bangladesh News

Ten more bodies of the dead from Thursday’s launch tragedy were recovered yesterday raising the death toll to 41. At least 10 people are still missing.

Eight of the dead were identified as Faruk Hossain, 45, a teacher of Vashanchar Secondary School, Nur Mohammad Bepari, 50, a retired teacher of Char Hogla Lakkhirpur madrasa, Abdul Khaleque Mollah, 55,

husband of expatriate Kohinoor Begum of Barisal, Nurunnesa Begum, 65, of Mehendiganj, Bimol, 32, of Patarhat, Rubel, 22, of Dhaka, Hanif Mia of Amtali of Barguna, Muslim Choukidar, 55, son of late Kalai Choukidar, and Shohag, 8.

The body of a boy aged between 12 and 15 could not be identified.

Relatives of the missing passengers are privately conducting search operations using trawlers, boats, fishing nets. The official search operations were called off Thursday evening, the very day the launch went down.

Locals and relatives of those who went missing recovered six of the nine bodies between 9:30am and 10:30am yesterday. Two others were recovered around 12:30pm and a BIWTA speedboat recovered one around 2:30pm. Locals and relatives recovered another body in the evening.

Hayatul Islam Khan, assistant commissioner of Barisal Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star that two bodies went down stream. A speedboat of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) was sent to recover them but it managed to recover one.

Locals, however, claimed that they saw at least four bodies going downstream.

A few hundred people are still waiting at the spot for missing people.

Locals and relatives of the victims recovered four bodies Saturday.

The salvage operation ended around 5:00pm Thursday. The rescue operations were called off at 7:00pm the same day with 27 bodies recovered.

However, 14 bodies were recovered afterwards including one that was trapped inside the engine room of the launch. Urchins discovered the body in the launch at the Barisal port jetty Saturday.

The launch ML Fahmida Happy Express around 6:00am Thursday was hit by a cargo vessel in the stern. It sank near Beltola-Charabdani Kheya Ghat in the Kirtonkhola in Barisal seven to 10 minutes later.