Two-and-a-half-year-old Fatema Akter felt exuberant when she was drinking juice on the launch, MV Mostafa, on Sunday. She was excited as she was going to meet her grandparents after long.
But little did she know that the pleasant journey would turn into one of the most devastating experiences of her life.
Daughter of Milon Hossain and Nidi Khatun, the little girl and her parents boarded the launch from Dhaka. Their destination was Bhaluka village under Kumarkhali thana in Kushtia.
Fatema was on her father’s lap and her mother was enjoying the view of the Padma River when cargo ship Nargis 1 hit the launch around 15 minutes after it set off from Paturia terminal for Daulatdia.
“I heard the sound of a big collision and we all three fell off our seats right away. My wife, after falling off, ended up a few feet away from us, and that was the last time I saw her,” Milon told the Dhaka Tribune while recalling the terrible accident.
“For a while, I was at a loss to understand what had happened. I held on my daughter and broke a window. Fatema passed out when I managed to come out of the launch. I was swimming real fast and she was with me. A rescue boat discovered us shortly and took us to the shore,” he said.
Milon then whisked Fatema off to Manikganj Sadar Hospital and came to Paturia terminal early yesterday morning to find his missing wife.
Till 8am, 64 bodies were recovered and 56 were identified but Milon did not find Nipi’s body among those.
Fatema was still unaware that her mother was unaccounted for, but she kept crying and asking her father about her mother’s whereabouts.
Milon, who was constantly looking through the dead bodies and thinking at the same time about what he should do, could not hold back his tears either.
Manikganj Deputy Commissioner Rashida Ferdous officially called off rescue operations around 10:30am, saying that a total of 69 bodies had been recovered and no one else was reported missing.
But like Milon, several families at Paturia terminal were still looking for their loved ones.
The mother-in-law of Sourav, Ayesha Begum, told the Dhaka Tribune that she had found his shirt but had no idea where he was.
Sourav has been working as the chef of MV Mostafa for nearly a decade, said Ayesha.
Another survivor Moushumi, who managed to swim ashore after the accident, said: “My two-year-old daughter Ria Moni who was with me also survived but my mother Arizunnesa is missing.”
Forty-year-old Amena Begum came to the terminal in search of her husband, who boarded the launch and was bound for Faridpur.
“We talked around 11:30am on Sunday for the last time, and my husband told me that he would phone me after reaching his destination but...” Amena could not finish the sentence and burst into tears.
But the Manikganj deputy commissioner denied that any passenger was missing after she called off rescue operations.
She said none had informed officials of anyone missing from his family or among his relatives.
“Only a Brac employee was reported missing. However, we will take necessary steps if any such case is reported later,” said Rashida.
MV Mostafa had a capacity of 140 passengers but is believed to have been overloaded when it left Paturia. The exact number of passengers boarding the launch has not yet been determined.
