On the seventh day of rescue operation in search of Pinak 6 Munshiganj district authorities yesterday announced the withdrawal of Bangladesh Navy, Coast Guard, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Fire Service ships from the accident spot.
Only two survey vessels – Kandari 2 and Jarip 10 – will continue their search operation with rescue vessels Rustom and Nirvik keeping standby.
Saiful Hasan Badal, deputy commissioner of the district, while addressing a press briefing yesterday afternoon, said only Jarip 10 and Kanadari 2 will continue their work to ensure if the metallic object traced on Saturday under water is the sunken launch Pinak 6.
However, the divers of other organisations will continue their work, the DC said.
DC Saiful further said when the tide ebbs the divers will resume their operation in full swing. Now it is risky to work in such a strong wave and current.
About the latest location of the sunken launch, Commander Manjurul Karim Chowdhury of the Chittagong Port yesterday evening said: “There is no new development to tell you. They are trying to trace the metallic object. we are still hopeful.”
Meanwhile, the local rescue diver company Meghna Chins and Cycle Mat joined the rescue operation along with the existing team.
Mohammad Hassan, owner of the diver agency, told the Dhaka Tribune that the shipping minister asked them to join the rescue operation as they had some previous experience.
Hassan further said they started working from yesterday morning. “We are very happy that we on the first day could trace a metallic object under water and we are suspecting that it is the Pinak 6.
“As the wave in the river is too high today we cannot go under water
but tomorrow morning around 7.00am our divers will go down and hope
that we would able to give some good news.
Osman Goni Talukder, chairman of Lauhoganj Upazila, said the minister asked the divers to work as they are local and had worked on the area earlier.
However, a source said the minister said the divers would be given Tk5 lakh if they could trace the launch.
Meanwhile, a total of 46 bodies have been recovered over the last seven days since the Pinak 6 launch went down under water.
Of them, 28 were handed over to family members while the rest 17 bodies were buried after their DNA samples were put aside.