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JAMUNA LAUNCH DISASTER

Tales of the living and the dead

ANWAR ALI, Rajshahi
The air of Habibpur in Charghat upazila is thick with grief as seven youths from this village are missing since the Jamuna launch sinking near Arichaghat in Manikganj on Tuesday.
Nine peasants left the village in search of jobs during the harvest. But only two of them survived the launch disaster and returned home.
Eighteen-year-old Shahidul Islam broke down at his house while describing the harrowing tale of his journey to Aricha and home with his dumb neighbour Rana.
"It was a horrible day. The nightmare still haunts me whenever I remember the accident. So many people struggling for life drowned before my eyes," he said in a choked voice.
"I couldn't do anything but look on as long as I could. My life will never be the same again with these nightmares recurring," Shahidul told reporters at his house yesterday.
"Our trouble began soon after we sailed from Nagarbari Ghat at around 2:30pm with an engine failure. With the help from another launch, we resumed our journey," said Shahidul, son of Nurul Islam.
Shahidul and Rana sat side by side on the deck with the seven others from their village.
"When we reached near Arichaghat, dark clouds obscured the sky at around 4:00pm and a howling storm along with turbulent streams lashed on our vessel."
Panicked passengers were running desperately on the launch to and fro when it started sinking.
"Before I jumped out of the launch with a life-saving buoy, I saw several people in waist-deep water striving for a few buoys left onboard."
As all but one windows were locked, the passengers rushed at once to the only open one to come out on the deck. Shahid said he fears no-one of them could make it.
A few hours later Shahid touched the shore and saw Rana, son of Habibur Rahman Mollah, ahead of him with a buoy.
His neighbour could not say a word, but the signs he made and tears in his eyes showed he had had enough.
The two came back alive, but the village still mourns its missing men. The villagers and the relatives of the seven missing people keep waiting for them with the hope they may come back.
Abdus Samad, 18, son of Abdur Rahman, Hasibul, 25, son of Abdul Hakim, Ashraf, 40, son of Abdur Rashid, Motallib, 17, son of Abul Kashem, Saban, 35, son of Sadek, Rabiul, 26, son of Nazir Uddin, and Shamsul, 40, son of Moslem Uddin, are missing.
Samad took the SSC examinations this year. His mother is mourning holding her son's admit card in her chest.
"My son went to earn money for books and fees for his admission to a college," she wept.
Ashraf's wife Minara has gone mute as she and their only son, Tariqul, were sitting beside her shanty badly damaged by a storm 10 days ago.
"Ashraf told me he would rebuild the house after his return," she said.
The houses of the other missing persons present a similar scenario. Motallib's parents Kashem and Piara faint from time to time.
Mothers of Hasibul, Saban and Shamsul stopped taking food since Shahid and Rana returned with the news.
Elsewhere in Bagha upazila, 35 people from three villages are missing since the launch sinking, said two survivors.
Three brothers, Moslem, 37, Bisad, 30, and Star, 26, sons of Moyez Uddin, of Harirampur village are missing.
Sixteen labourers from Chilmarir Char in Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia boarded the lunch, but only four of them have so far returned.
Zillu told his village people over cellphone he, Babu, Mollah and Sattar had survived the accident and are trying to trace others.
Abdus Salam Dorji, 55, of Aricha in Shibalaya upazila is one of the 137 missing passengers trapped inside the twin-decker MV Raipura, reports Md Zahangir Alam Biswas from Manikganj.
Salam was returning home from Dinajpur with Tk 57,000 and 2.5 tola gold ornaments he got by selling his land for the marriage of his youngest daughter Akhter Banu.
He was scheduled to go to the groom's Nayabari house on Sunday, the day the launch sank, to set the marriage date. A pall of gloom surrounds Salam's wife, three daughters and two sons, who lost the sole earning member of the family.