Police and the Bangladesh Coast Guard on Monday recovered bodies of four women on the shores of Sandwip upazila in Chittagong, two days after a group of Rohingya refugees went missing in the Bay of Bengal.
It is primarily believed that the victims belong to the same group of Rohingyas whose trawler capsized Saturday due to bad weather in the sea as they tried to flee from Bashan Char.
The coast guard recovered two bodies in Sarikait at around 10am and police recovered the other two in Guptachara and Choakhali area of the upazila at around 11:30am.
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Coast Guard (East Zone) Public Relations Officer Abdur Rauf and Sandwip police station Inspector Nur Ahmed confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune.
Abdur Rauf said: “As the ocean tide washed the bodies up the shores of Sandwip, it is presumed that they belong to the group of Rohingya refugees that went missing in the Bay two days ago.”
The bodies are being taken to Bhashan char for identification, he added.
Meanwhile, Inspector Nur Ahmed said: “Aa locals could not identify the bodies, we strongly believe they could be the Rohingya refugees who drowned in the sea.”
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Earlier on Sunday afternoon, the coast guard recovered the body of a 12-year-old child from 10 to 12 nautical miles south of Bhashan char after a trawler carrying around 40 Rohingya refugees capsized off the coast of Chittagong in the Bay of Bengal while fleeing from the Bhashan Char island early Saturday.