Dhaka: A six-month-old girl was among six killed when an overcrowded ferry with over 150 people on board on Sunday sank after collision, in the latest maritime tragedy to hit Bangladesh within 10 days.
The ferry was heading to Paturia from Daulatdia in Rajbari when it was hit by a cargo trawler, a senior police official of Manikganj district said. The site is 40 kilometres northwest from here.
The infant was rescued from the river but later declared dead at the hospital. Among rest of the deceased, two are women and three men, whose bodies were recovered from the Padma river in which the ferry sank, the Daily Star cited Rakibuzzaman, officer-in-charge (OC) of Shibaloy Police Station, as saying. The master of the cargo vehicle Nargis-1 and his assistant was detained on the charges of hitting the ferry. Their cargo trawler was also seized.
Most of the passengers were rescued by nearby boats and a joint salvage operation by naval authorities that is still ongoing in search of additional survivors.
Ferry disasters are common in Bangladesh due to poor safety standards. On February 13, at least five persons, including a minor, were killed when an overloaded ferry carrying 200 passengers, mostly devotees, capsized in the Paira river. Last month, rescuers recovered eight bodies from a fishing boat that capsized in the Bay of Bengal off the Bangladesh coast carrying migrants to Malaysia. Last August, another ferry sank in a river in Bangladesh, killing about 130 people. (PTI)
