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High currents halt salvage, 29 more bodies found

150 still missing in Jamuna; 30 feared drowned as boat sinks in Meghna

STAR REPORT
Salvage operations of the sunken launch in the Jamuna river were delayed by strong currents and setbacks yesterday, including a snapped rescue wire, as hopes faded for more than 150 people feared drowned.
By yesterday evening, 29 floating bodies had been retrieved downstream of the spot near Arichaghat in Manikganj, raising the death toll to 33.
A total of 22 divers took place in the rescue efforts yesterday. One of them said he saw bodies trapped inside the vessel but could not reach them due to the heavy current. The ferry is now at least 30 feet under water and partly covered by sands, he said.
Efforts to refloat the ferry began in the early morning, after the rescue vessel, M.V. Rustam, was initially delayed by bad weather. But stormy weather and strong currents have so far frustrated the effort, particularly after a wire intended to help lift out the vessel snapped in mid operation.
"Battling the strong current, our divers could tie the vessel but we could not lift it out as the metal wire tore off. We have ordered for a new wire that is supposed to reach here at 8:00pm. Then we may start the rescue operation again," Dr. Reaz Ahsan Kahndakar, the chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said from the spot over the telephone.
"But I think we have to start the operation tomorrow morning as waves are very big now and the rescue ship can hardly remain steady," he added.
The twin-decker M.V. Raipura went down in a tropical storm on Tuesday afternoon with more than 200 passengers in the Jamuna river at Aricha about 100 km west of Dhaka. About 20 people survived, while more than 150 were trapped inside the ferry, witnesses said. The ferry was registered to carry only 120 passengers.
People present at the spot believe that nobody can survive so long under water.
"It is quite unlikely that anyone would survive so long under water. If anyone survived it would definitely be a miracle," a BIWTA official monitoring the rescue said, requesting anonymity.
Firemen and local people recovered 29 bodies yesterday from spots three to five km downstream from the accident. Four additional bodies had earlier been recovered from the river.
"As we tried to salvage the sunken vessel, some bodies came out and floated away," said Reaz Ahsan Khandakar.
Relatives took away the bodies of 10 to 12 persons from the spot for burial while Manikganj Pourasava was taking preparation to bury the unidentified people.
Our Manikganj correspondent reports that hundreds of relatives, many wailing or beating their chests in grief, raised their hands in prayers for their missing loved ones, many of whom were traveling in search of work in the Aricha river port district.
The anguish of those waiting is quickly mounting, as they have been staying there for more than two days and still have no word when their wait will come to an end.
Tensions flared yesterday, as some started shouting and cursing the authorities.
"Do something to speed up the rescue process," one man, a relative of an ill-fated victim, shouted at rescuers yesterday. "Don't come up with another excuse or put the blame on the weather alone."
Ferry accidents taking hundreds of lives have become a common phenomenon each year, despite repeated government promises to better legislate the sector. The death toll has reached more than 4,000 in the last ten years, of which the government officially admits not less than 3,000.
The Aricha tragedy came three days after another packed ferry, the twin-decked M.V. Prince of Patuakhali, sank in a storm in the turbulent Tentulia river 350 km south of Dhaka, killing nearly 100 people with 20 still listed missing.