A Correspondent:
Munshiganj: The death toll from the Munshiganj speedboat accident has reached to four.
Six others were rescued following the collision between the speedboat and a trawler in the Meghna River in Gajaria upazila of Munshiganj on Friday night, Anwar Alam, officer-in-charge of Gajaria Police Station said on Saturday.
The deceased have been identified as Wadud Bepari, 36, son of Mohammad Ali Bepari from Jamal-pur village in Gajaria upazila; Babul Sarkar, 48, son of Bachchu Sarkar from Ramzanbeg village in Munshiganj upazila; and two men, Sakib, 26, and Nayeem, 24, both from Matlab Uttar upazila in Chandpur. Nayeem, the operator of the speedboat, was among the deceased.
According to police and locals, the accident occurred when a trawler, en route to Guagachia in Gajaria upazila from an event in Matlab Uttar, collided with the oncoming speedboat. Both vessels were carrying a total of 10 to 11 people. Dense fog at the time caused the speedboat to lose its bearings, leading to the crash. The impact caused the trawler to sink, while the speedboat was damaged.
Following the collision, Nayeem’s body went missing. Search efforts were immediately launched by the Fire Service, Coast Guard, and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). Nayeem’s body was eventually recovered around 2 pm on Saturday.
Commander Obaidul Karim Khan, deputy director of BIWTA and head of the Narayanganj rescue unit, said, “We have confirmed that the speedboat collided with an engine-driven trawler. We be-lieve that all the deceased were passengers of the trawler.”
Further investigations are ongoing, the OC also stated.
