'Boat Capsize in Bay'
Incident not confirmed
Over 100 feared missing
Bangladesh Coast Guard was yet to confirm a man's claim that he survived a boat capsize in the Bay early Sunday while heading for Malaysia illegally with more than a hundred others.
Abu Bakar, 22, of Teknaf told police that the engine-run boat was carrying some 128 people, including him, and capsized around 4:00am, six hours after their travel began from some place near Saint Martin Island.
He also said he survived the accident along with five others while more than a hundred people went missing.
Mohammad Farhad, officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police Station, quoted Bakar as saying that the six men were floating throughout the day holding on to some plastic stuff before being rescued by a fishing boat that night.
The other survivors include Syed Hossain, 22, and Nur Hossain, 25, of Shahporidwip, two Rohingya men, and another man from Moheskhali. The OC said police could only talk to Bakar.
Contacted, Coast Guard Lt Commander Badruddoza said they got to know of the boat capsize through the media on Tuesday night and immediately sent their teams to different areas to look for the survivors but found no-one.
“Our teams went to the village homes of Syed Hossain and Nur Hossain today (yesterday) to get the detail of the incident, but they were not at home while their relatives declined to give any information.”
He said Coast Guard did not get any floating bodies or missing people or any more survivors till yesterday and informed the incident to Bangladesh Navy.
Bakar said he gave Tk 20,000 to a local broker for travelling to Malaysia. Police were looking for the broker.
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