More than 50 feared dead:Daily Star

A number of the surviving fortune seekers on a coast guard boat heading for the shore yesterday. The fortune seekers were going to Malaysia illegally on a boat when it sank near Kutubdia. Photo: Star More than 50 overseas jobseekers are feared drowned after a fishing trawler with about 100 people on board sank off the Kutubdia coast in the Bay of Bengal yesterday morning. Bangladesh Coast Guard an
d police have so far rescued 43 victims, including three alleged human traffickers, in several phases, sources said. The vessel was pulled out of water but there was no one inside it, said Lieutenant Commander Fazlul Karim, operation officer of the coast guard (East zone). Tarek Mostafa, contingent commander of Kutubdia Coast Guard, said three of the rescued victims were traffickers. He said Coast Guard and Bangladesh Navy officials had continued their search for the missing fortune seekers but chances for their survival were getting slimmer with every passing minute. The trawler that set off from Chittagong in the early hours was carrying the hapless passengers to a cargo vessel anchored in the deep waters that would have made the illegal, perilous voyage to Thailand and from there to Malaysia, sources said. The passengers aboard were lured by traffickers with the promise of lucrative jobs in Malaysia, according to one of the rescued victims. Sources at the Kutubdia Police Station said the trawler had sunk 7 to 8 kilometres off the Kutubdia coast. Advertisement Mohammad Ismail, 35, a resident of Paschim Pokkhali village in Cox's Bazaar Sadar, was one of the victims rescued within an hour of the incident. The wooden-trawler left the Sadar Ghat area of the Karnaphuli river around 1:00am for Malaysia, said Ismail. "It sank four hours later. The captain failed to steer the boat straight, losing control at one point,” he recalled. Golap Miah, 25, of Narshingdi's Raipura upazila was also pulled out of the water with Ismail and others. He reported having seen fellow passengers afloat around the spot where the accident happened. Ruhul Amin, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazaar, said the boat had sunk for carrying people many times more than its capacity. Thirty two of the rescued passengers were handed over to Kutubdia Police. Of them, five were being treated at the upazila health complex. Mohammad Alamgir, 30, from Jessore's Bagharpara was among the five admitted for treatment to the health complex. “We were kept at a hotel called Golden Inn until we boarded the trawler,” said Alamgir. Of the rescued, the biggest group of 14 came from Jessore and others, in groups ranging from two to seven came from Narayanganj, Bogra, Cox's Bazaar, Narsingdi, Madaripur and Naogaon.