Authorities yesterday called off the Paturia capsize rescue operation after 69 bodies were pulled from the Padma River, but said a search operation would continue.
“Sixty-nine bodies have been recovered from the sunken launch. The rescue operation was closed after the launch was hauled up and brought to the riverbank. A search operation for floating bodies will continue,” Manikganj Deputy Commissioner Rashida Ferdous said at a press briefing at Paturia Ghat at 10:30am yesterday.
Officials could not say for certain how many passengers were on board the ill-fated launch. “Since it had a capacity of 140 people, there were probably around 150 passengers on board,” Deputy Commissioner Rashida said.
Residents of the area claimed there were closer to 200 people aboard the stricken vessel.
Favourable weather, a gentle current and a relatively shallow river depth made the MV Mostafa rescue the quickest operation of its kind in the country’s maritime history, with the salvage of the vessel taking a little over four hours to complete.
Just 22 hours passed between the time the passenger vessel capsized and the time the rescue operation was finally abandoned.
Of the 69 bodies recovered, 57 have been identified and handed over to their families, Rashida said.
Four of the casualties were male children, 10 were female children, 22 were adult males and 21 were adult females, she said.
Twelve bodies had not been identified and will be kept at Dhaka Medical College morgue for two days.
If the bodies remain unclaimed, they will be handed over to Anjuman Mufidul Islam for burial.
The administration could not say for sure how many passengers had managed to swim ashore or to nearby vessels. Witness reports suggest perhaps 35 or 40 people survived the accident.
Many relatives of passengers say their loved ones are still missing.
The deputy commissioner said her office had received hardly any reports of missing persons.
Search operations for victims whose remains may have floated downriver will continue.
“The administration has received just one missing person report about a Brac employee who has not been accounted for. If more are reported we will take necessary steps,” Rashida said.
Swift operation
The MV Mostafa rescue was the quickest operation of its kind in Bangladesh.
The sunken ship was pulled from the river floor, righted, and brought to shore at 4am yesterday after rescue vessel Rustom joined the operation around 11:30pm.
Dr Md Shamsuddoha Khandaker, chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said: “It is the quickest rescue operation ever because of nature’s favour. The depth of the river where the launch sank was about 20ft and there was no strong current.”
“Because of this, we easily located it and started our operation within the shortest possible time of the arrival of rescue ship Rustom,” he said.
The rapid recovery has meant that retrieved bodies had not suffered too much water damage or decomposition.
Rescue efforts continued until 10:30am yesterday with around 150 members of the Navy, Coast Guard, Fire Service, BIWTA, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC), and district administration taking part.
“We need to rescue people alive – then we can say we are successful. We are far away from saving people,” the BIWTA chairman said.
“We need more technological support and logistical support, like a well-manned, well-organised and well-equipped rescue team with enough speed boats and helicopters,” he said.
“We can count ourselves successful when we can bring the number of deaths down to zero,” he said.
He told the Dhaka Tribune: “There should be more patrolling of the rivers, especially at possible accident sites.”
He called for strict laws and exemplary punishment for those responsible for such accidents.
Most rescue operations were delayed due to insufficient resources and natural obstacles, he said.
For example, the Pinak 6 rescue operation in 2014 failed due to bad weather and strong currents.
Efforts to detect the vessel were called off eight days after the launch capsized in the Padma River with over 250 passengers aboard.
The vessel’s salvage ended in failure due to foul weather and strong currents, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said at the time.
Inquiries and compensation
The Manikganj district administration has said it will provide each victim’s family Tk20,000, while Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan announced that he would provide Tk1.05 lakh to the families of each victim, Deputy Commissioner Rashida said.
The captain of Nargis 1, the vessel which crashed into the MV Mostafa causing it to capsize and sink, and three of his assistants were arrested in connection with the accident.
The Department of Shipping has formed a three-member probe committee to determine the cause of the accident and identify those who were responsible. A separate Shipping Ministry probe committee, consisting of 11 members, has also been convened to look into the matter.
