Two more bodies were recovered from Biskhali and Sugandha rivers today taking the death toll from the fire on launch MV Abhijan-10 in Jhalakathi to 44.
Md Johor Ali, deputy commissioner (DC) of Jhalakathi, confirmed the matter.
The DC said fire service members recovered a body from the estuary of Biskhali and Sugandha rivers around 8am. Later around 1:45pm, the coast guard members recovered another body from Biskhali river. Earlier, another body was recovered from Sugandha river yesterday evening.
Three bodies were recovered in the last two days, resulting in 44 deaths from the incident, added the DC.
Mohammad Rabiul Islam, inspector (forensic) of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said they have already collected DNA samples of 42 relatives. Multiple people also gave samples against one. However, the samples of those, who have blood relations, are being taken.
The CID has already collected the bones, hair and nails from the burnt bodies and sent those to Dhaka CID Laboratory from where it will take one to two months for confirmation, added the CID official.
Talking to this correspondent, Md Habibur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Barguna, said, "No bodies were buried in mass grave. Each of them was buried in separate graves."
A massive fire broke out in the engine room of a launch in the middle of Sugandha River off the coast of Jhalakathi Sadar Upazila on December 24.
The blaze broke out at 3:00am on the Barguna-bound Avijan-10 launch carrying some 800 passengers from Dhaka and it engulfed the entire vessel within 10 minutes.
