The New Nation - Internet Edition

Kishoreganj Correspondent

Five more bodies were recovered from the Ghorautra river in Nikli upazila early yesterday, raising the death toll from Monday's launch capsize to 49.

Local people recovered the floating bodies from the river but their identities could not be known immediately.

However, 50 passengers of the launch are still missing.

As the vessel which was lying about 35 feet under the river waters could not be salvaged till yesterday morning, the Kishoreganj District Administration declared the rescue operation abandoned.

But the relatives of the missing passengers claimed that there were many bodies trapped inside the motor-launch and they demanded recovery of those bodies.

The district administration has paid compensation of Tk 1.32 lakh to the families of the victims. Each family received Tk 4,000. The Mitamoin-bound launch, MV Chandpur, carrying over 150 passengers capsized in the river at the point at about 5:00pm on Monday as it was caught in a storm, leaving scores of people missing.

Soon after the mishap, local people recovered four bodies from the river.

Later, the divers of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Fire Brigade and Civil Defence in a joint salvage operation pulled up 40 more bodies from the sunken launch on Tuesday, raising the death toll to 49.

Most of the victims hailed from Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Narayanganj and Narsingdi. Majority of them were ready-made garment workers.