Passenger boat carrying 39 people on its way to Janata Ghat from Bhasan Char island in Hatia town of Noakhali district capsized in Meghna River, senior police official tells Anadolu
A passenger motorboat sank in a river off the coast of Bangladesh's Noakhali district on Saturday, apparently due to bad weather and tidal waves, killing one person, police confirmed, adding that 33 people have been rescued so far and five are still missing.
Ajmal Huda, officer in charge of Hatia Police Station, told Anadolu that the passenger boat carrying 39 people on its way to Janata Ghat from Bhasan Char island in Hatia town of the district capsized in the Meghna River, one of Bangladesh's major rivers from the Ganges Delta.
Following the incident, local police and fishermen rushed to the scene, rescuing 33 people and recovering the body of a man whose identity has yet to be determined, he said.
Five people remain missing, including one member each of the police and the Ansar, a paramilitary auxiliary force, he said, adding that those who were rescued were taken to a nearby health facility.
Rescue operations are continuing despite the adverse weather, he said.
According to local Channel 24 TV, the passengers included 22 ordinary passengers, six Rohingya, three police officers, four Ansar members, and four of the boat crew
The police official, however, was unable to confirm how many Rohingya were on the boat.
More than 1.3 million Rohingya are seeking refuge in Bangladesh's overcrowded coastal Cox's Bazar district. The majority arrived following Myanmar's military crackdown in 2017.
As more Rohingya arrived, the Bangladeshi government relocated approximately 30,000 to Bhasan Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, despite opposition from some rights organizations.
The coastal district, including the island of Hatia, has been experiencing continuous rain since Thursday due to a depression over the Bay of Bengal, which caused heavy tidal waves and flooding of nearby coastal lands, submerging and damaging hundreds of houses and dozens of fishing enclosures.
The rough weather forced the suspension of all the river connectivity with the rest of the country in Hatia.
The weather office on Saturday said that the southwest monsoon has begun over Bangladesh. It, however, advised the maritime ports of Chattogram, Cox's Bazar, Mongla, and Payra to reduce signals.
