At least 17 people, mostly madrassah students and teachers, drowned as a trawler capsized due to strong wind and current in a haor at Madan upazila in Netrokona on Wednesday.
One madrassah student remained missing till filing of this report.
The victims include seven children aged seven to 16 years.
Among the victims, Md Isa Mia,45, son of Hossain Ali and a farmer, Zahid Hasan,20, son of Md Helal Uddin and a mobile businessperson, Mahbubur Rahman Asif,15, and Mahmud Mia,12, sons of Mahfuzur Rahman and madrassah students, Lubna Akter,10, daughter of Waz Uddin and a student, Rezaul Karim,16, son of late Helal Uddin and a madrassah student, Saiful Islam Ratan, 30, son of Abdur Rashid and a madrassah teacher, Mahfuzur Rahman, 45, son of Zainal Abedin and a madrassah teacher, Zobair,22, son of Md Fazar Ali and a tailor, Hamidul Islam,35, son of Idris Ali and a madrassah teacher, Azharul Islam,38, son of freedom fighter Md Basir Uddin and a teacher, Julfa Akhter,7, daughter of Waz Uddin, Shamim Hasan,10, son of Isa Mia and a madrassah student and Mozahid Mia,18, son of Md Fazar Ali and a tailor worker are from Mymensingh sadar.
Three other victims– Shafiqur Rahman, 40, son of Abdul Kalam Azad from Gouripur thana under Mymensingh and Saman, 10, son of Shafiqur Rahman, and Shahidul Zahirul, 40, son of Taleb Hossain - are from Char Gobindapur in Mymensingh.
The bodies were handed over to their respective families, said Madan police station sub-inspector Shamsul Islam.
According to the Madan police station officials, some madrassah teachers and their students from Kolapara and Char Bhabanipur villages under Mymensingh sadar came to Uchitpur for seeing the haor.
They got into a trawler around 11:30am with a total 48 passengers on board and at around 11:45am the trawler capsized due to strong current.
Madan Upazila Nirbahi officer Bulbul Ahmed told New Age that the incident happened around noon at Rajali village area under Gobinda Sri union of the upazila when a group of madrassah students and teachers took a boat ride in the hoar.
He said that the students and their teachers came to see the haor’s Uchitpur spot, which was locally known as ‘mini Cox’s Bazar’.
‘It’s a tourist spot. The group was joined by some people from Atpara area of Netrakona,’ he said.
On the day between 11:00am and 12:00pm there was strong wind, which created strong current on the haor water, he said.
He said that primarily they assumed the trawler capsized while taking a turn.
‘There were 48 people on the boat. We rescued 30 people and 17 bodies and one person remained missing,’ said the UNO, adding that all rescued people were in good condition.
Two units of the Fire Service and Civil Defence and some divers operated rescue operation on the accident spot to find a missing madrassah student till 6:30pm, said fire service Madan upazila station officer Ahmad Kabir.
‘We called off the rescue operation as night fell and there were strong current and wind on the spot,’ he said, adding that they would decide if rescue operation could be resumed in the morning.
The capsized trawler was recovered from the spot, he said.
