Bodies of 3 more fishermen recovered in Cox’s Bazar

The bodies of three more fishermen have been recovered in Cox’s Bazar after they washed up ashore in as many areas.

So far, bodies of nine fishermen have washed up ashore and been recovered — six of them on Wednesday alone.

The three latest bodies were recovered from Samitipara point of Cox’s Bazar town, Hoanak of Moheshkhali, and Himchhori point of Ramu around 10pm on Thursday, confirmed Sadar model police OC Farid Uddin Khandaker.

The district’s Additional Superintendent of Police Md Iqbal Hossain said they have indentified seven out of the nine deceased fishermen so far. They are: Kamal Hossain, Oli Ullah, Oji Ullah, Md Masud, Babul Mia, Jahangir Alam and Shamsuddin Patwary. 

On Wednesday morning, a fishing boat with the decomposed bodies of six fishermen had washed up ashore at the Seagull point of Cox’s Bazar sea beach.

Two more fishermen — later identified as Jewel and Md Monir — were also rescued alive from the vessel. They were admitted to Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital.

Monir said he and 13 others had left Shamraz Ghat at Charfesson, Bhola on a trawler on July 4 for fishing.

He said tidal waves, coupled with gusty wind and inclement weather, had hit their trawler first in the early hours of July 6, sweeping away many of them into the sea. “The vessel soon overturned too. After that, I don’t know who ended up where.”

“However, several others and I managed to hold onto the trawler and our dear lives. Since then, we survived on several bottles of water, until we were rescued,” said Monir.