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Tarique, Koko, Mamun sued for launch capsize

5 more bodies recovered from their sunken vessel

Staff Correspondent
The government has filed a case against Tarique Rahman. Arafat Rahman Koko, and their associate Giasuddin Al Mamun of Messrs Rahman Shippers Bangladesh Ltd in connection with the recent launch capsize in theTentulia river.
The company’s Managing Director Tarique Rahman and its director Arafat Rahman Koko are sons of Opposition Leader and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, while its another Director Mamun is a close associate ofTarique.
The company owns MV Coco-4 that sank in theTentulia near Nazirpur launch terminal in Lalmohon of Bhola on November 27 with around 2,000 holiday passengers on board.
Our Patuakhali correspondent reported that six more bodies were recov-ered from the sunken vessel yesterday raising the accident's death toll to 84.
Shipping department inspector for Sadarghat launch terminal, Shafique Aiyub, filed the case with the Marine Court on November 30 implicating 13 others, who are the master of the launch, its driver, sukani, and 10 other unknown staff, said Chief Engineer and Surveyor of the Shipping Department AKM Fakhrul Islam.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan informed reporters about the filing of the case yesterday in his office.
The minister said the government will also punish its own officials whose culpabilityin the tragic event will be found.
The case brought allegations of overloading. negligence in duty, boarding of passengers on unauthorised places, and reckless endangerment against the
accused -- which were the reasons for the accident, said Fakhrul Islam.
He said the case mentions that excess passengers were boarded on the launch from different terminals after leaving Sadarghat in the capital on way to its destination. Later an altercation broke out between the passengers and the launch crew at Nazirpur terminal over fares, and the crew locked the exit gate creating panic among the passengers.
The case goes on to mention that the passengers then tried to get off over a side of the launch, but the accused crew members did not moor the vessel at the terminal, nor did they lay the gang plank for the passengers to walk over, rather they tried to veer the vessel away from the terminal, and that is when the launch sank, according to Fakhrul. Rescue ship Rustam reached the spot around 11:00pm on Tuesday to help already arrived rescue ship Hamza in yesterday's rescue operation that started at 10:00am. Several hundred relatives of missing passengers were still waiting on the river bank. They hoped that the launch would be lifted from water after Rustam's arrival, but it was delayed.
The rescue operation might goon for 10 to 12 hours today as well to be completed, said Shamsul Haque Patwary, project implementation officer of Lalmohon upazila.
Meanwhile, Lalmohon Students' Association, a local student organisation, demonstrated in the upazila headquarters protesting the tragic launch capsizai forming human chains, holding condolence rallies, and submitting a memorandum to the prime minister through the upazila administration yesterday.
In the memorandum the student organisation put forward a 13-point charter of demands including one for removing all unfit launches
from the river route.
Lalmohon upazila BNP on the other hand arranged a press conference around noon in its office where its convener also local municipality mayor, Enayet Kabir, spoke. He said the ruling jarty might have been behind thefilingofthe case to tarass BNP leaders and to hinder the party's activities. Tarique is also the senior joint secretary general of BNP.
Abdur Rahim, claiming to be the master of MV Coco-2, in a press statement said surviving passenger Md Kamrul Hossain, who filed another case in connection with the accident, implicated innocent people instead of implicating the real offenders.
He said he himself was implicated in that case as the master of Coco-4, while actually he is not even a staff of that launch, rather he was on duty on Coco-2 during the incident.
He also said another man named Mohammad Mizan was also accused in the case while no crew member of Coco-4 is named Mizan.