The New Nation - Internet Edition

Cox's Bazar Correspondent

At least one person died and many others missing after a trawler capsized in the Bay of Bengal near Saint Martin's Island in the southeastern Cox's Bazar district, early yesterday.

Police in the morning recovered a body while many others remain missing. The trawler carrying more than 100 people, mostly from Myanmar, capsized in the Teknaf river bordering Myanmar.

Police Super of Cox's Bazar Banaj Kumar Majumder said the people were traveling by a fishing trawler in disguise of fishermen to enter Malaysia through the illegal waterway.

The wooden fishing boat was capsized near Saint Martin's Island, about 75 miles south of the coastal resort town of Cox's Bazar, he said.

One body was recovered, but information on whether there were more casualties and other details about the accident were sketchy, Majumdar said.

The passengers' nationalities were not immediately known, but Majumdar said possibly they could be Myanmar refugees.

He said police and border patrol officials had been sent to the scene.

Police suspect human traffickers of Myanmar had been using the boat to try taking the passengers to either Thailand or Malaysia, Majumdar said.

Several thousand Myanmar refugees, mostly Muslims known as Rohingyas, have fled to Bangladesh over the years, claiming persecution by Myanmar's military junta and economic hardships.

In the last three months, police and the coast guards have arrested about 300 people, mostly Myanmar refugees, in the same waters, mainly on trafficking or illegal entry charges.