Dhaka, Sep 26 (PTI) With the recovery of 25 more bodies on Monday from a capsized boat carrying Hindu devotees to a centuries-old temple in northern Bangladesh, the death toll in the tragedy has risen to 50, mostly children and women, authorities said.
The devotees were heading towards the Bodeshwari Temple on the occasion of Mahalaya, the auspicious start of the Durga Puja festival, when the over-crowded boat capsized in the Korotoa River in the northwestern Panchagarh district on Sunday.
Sujoy Kumar, officer in-charge of the local police station, said that the authorities have recovered the bodies of 25 more people, taking the death toll in the incident to 50.
Among them, 13 are children, 25 women and 12 men, he added.
Some bodies were found in a river in Dinajpur. The bodies have been carried by the strong current into nearby rivers and tributaries, Kumar said, adding that the police and the fire service are conducting their rescue operations with that in mind.
Panchagarh Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Dipankar Roy, who is also leading the investigation committee formed by the district administration, said that the recovered bodies were handed over to families.
Media reports quoting relatives said 58 passengers were missing while officials earlier said the boat was believed to be carrying as many as 80 passengers.
Eyewitnesses, however, claim that there were more than 150 passengers on the boat. Some people swim back to the river bank.
“The preliminary investigation shows that the boat was overcrowded,” Roy was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.
However, he also noted that there may be other reasons behind why the boat sank, but that will be revealed after the committee finishes its investigation, the paper said.
“The boatman had asked some people to disembark to ease the weight-load. But no one listened,” said Solaiman Ali, the administrative chief of the sub-district.
Roy said the fire service in Panchagargh is leading the search efforts.
At least 34 people are still missing, the fire service said.
Families are lining the banks of the river in the area, desperately waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be retrieved from the water.
The Durga Puja is the biggest Hindu festival in Bangladesh and in eastern India.
Deltaic Bangladesh is crisscrossed by several hundred rivers while hundreds of people die each year in boat and ferry accidents in Bangladesh, largely due to overcrowding.
Earlier in May, 26 people died after an overcrowded speed boat collided with a sand-laden bulk carrier and sank on the Padma River.