The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Sharankhola

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed Tuesday called upon the countrymen to come forward in aid of the victims of cyclone Sidr that slammed inland from the bay last Thursday night and wrecked country's southern region. Assuring all possible help from the government side, the Army Chief made the call during a visit to Sharankhola, the worst hit remote upazila of the coastal district.

"Not a single man shall die without food as the government has a sufficient stock of foodstuffs," he said consoling the distressed people who have lost everything in the natural disaster. He assured the injured of providing all necessary treatment from the army medical team and informed them that a floating medical hospital would be set up on board a launch for providing medicare, including surgery.

General Moeen also pledged that each of the families of those killed in the cyclone would be given Tk 10,000, saying that the government would take steps for the funeral of the dead.

Bagerhat district Army Commander Lt. Colonel Sayeed Siddiqui informed the Army Chief that the death toll in Sharankhola rose to 655 to date, as the area in the vicinity of the seaside mangrove-forest Sundabans fell under the terrible eye of the storm. General Moeen went round the relief-operation sites and water plant of the army and distributed saris, lungis and powdered milk among the victims.