51 people died in Bangladesh boat tragedy
Three times its capacity was being carried by the community boat, local authorities said.
After a boat carrying religious pilgrims overturned in Bangladesh on Monday, rescue crews found 26 more remains, bringing the death toll to 51 and at least a dozen people still missing, according to authorities.
On Sunday, a tiny boat that was largely full of women and children traveling to a well-known shrine capsized in a river as witnesses yelled from the shore.
The occurrence near the isolated northern town of Boda was the most recent in a spate of catastrophes of a similar nature that were attributed to inadequate upkeep and overcrowding in the low-lying delta nation.
The fire department and naval divers found 26 bodies in the Karotoa River downstream from where the boat capsized, according to regional police commander Sirajul Huda.
According to authorities, it was transporting about 90 people, about 50 of them were pilgrims traveling to a significant event at a centuries-old Hindu temple.
Up to 15 people, according to Huda, remain missing.
“In the evening, we suspended the search. The hunt will resume in the morning tomorrow,” he informed AFP.
According to the police, the number of missing people has decreased as several people have reported finding relatives who had swum to safety.
Huda claimed that the boat was three times its carrying capacity.
“There were strong downpours in the morning, so when the ferrying started, pilgrims filled the boat to get to the temple as soon as possible,” he told AFP.
“In an effort to reduce the weight on the boat, the boatman urged some passengers to leave. But no one took notice,” he said.
At least ten persons, according to local media, were saved and sent to a hospital.
The overcrowded boat abruptly turned over, dumping the passengers into the murky brown river, as seen in footage from a mobile phone that Channel 24 broadcast on television.
Dozens of onlookers on the shore began screaming and shouting. At the moment, the weather was calm. Every year, tens of thousands of Hindus travel to Bangladesh, where Muslims make up the majority.
The largest Hindu holiday in Bangladesh as well as eastern India, Durga Puja, began on Sunday, drawing a sizable audience to the shrine.
In southern Bangladesh, a crowded three-story ferry caught fire in December of last year, killing about 40 people.
After colliding with another vessel, a ferry capsized in Dhaka in June 2020, killing at least 32 persons.
Additionally, a cargo ship collided with an overcrowded ship in a river west of the nation’s capital in 2015, killing at least 78 people.
#BREAKING 23 dead after boat sinks in Bangladesh: police pic.twitter.com/FnUAZOeoEp
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 25, 2022
