Accidents due to lax rules, poor safety, and overcrowding kill hundreds in frequent ferry tragedies in Bangladesh
People gather as rescuers pull bodies after a boat packed with Hindu devotees sank in northern Bangladesh, leaving at least 33 dead. (Photo: Firoz Al Sabah/AFP)
At least 33 Hindus died and some 58 remain missing after a boat packed with devotees capsized while crossing a river to join a prayer in a temple on the occasion of Durga Puja festival in northern Bangladesh.
The tragedy occurred when the boat carrying some 100 passengers, about double the capacity, sank on the Karatoya river in the Boda area of Panchgarh district on Sept. 25, Jahurul Islam, chief government officer of the district confirmed UCA News.
The devotees were heading to Badheshwar temple on the other side of the river to join Mahalaya Puja, to start off the Durga Puja festival when the boat capsized allegedly due to overcrowding.
Hindus make up the largest religious minority group or about eight percent in Muslim-majority Bangladesh of 165 million. Durga Puja is the largest religious festival for Bengali Hindus in Bangladesh as well as in the West Bengal state of India.
Islam said the government has announced a compensation package for the victims and formed a probe committee to investigate the incident.
“Initially, each family is being given 20,000 taka (US$ 192) for the funeral of the dead. Apart from this, 100,000 taka ($ 959) will be given to each family of the deceased. A five-member committee has been formed to investigate the accident. The committee has been asked to submit its report within the next three working days,” Islam told UCA news.
Hindu devotee Robin Chandra, 38, has lost his wife and three-year-old son in the boat tragedy. He lamented that a bridge on the river could have prevented the tragedy that killed his wife and son.
“When my wife and child died on their way to pray to God. How cruel God’s judgment is! The Hindu people here have been demanding a bridge for a long time. If there was a bridge, this accident would not have happened,” Chandra told UCA News.
“I think I won’t be able to celebrate Durga Puja again. Because whenever Durga Puja comes, it will remind me about the tragedy that took away my three-year-old son and my wife,” he added.
Local villagers told UCA News that in absence of a bridge people take motorized and non-motorized boats to cross the river. There have been accidents in the past, but the latest one is the worst.
Ranjan Rozario, regional director of Catholic charity Caritas Dinajpur in northern Bangladesh, said that a team will visit the families of the victims soon and provide assistance to them.
Bangladesh, a low-lying South Asian country, is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers that form the world’s largest river delta system that empties into the Bay of Bengal.
Waterways provide a cheap mode of transport for millions in a country where about a quarter live below the poverty line.
Lax rules, poor safety standards, and overcrowding are often blamed for frequent accidents that kill hundreds of people every year.
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