Bangladesh searching for sunken ferry captain, owner

Bangladesh today launched a search for the owner and captain of an overloaded ferry that sank in the Padma river, as the death toll in the tragedy climbed to 11 with at least 130 passengers feared drowned.
"Orders have been issued to track down the owner and the captain of (sunken) Pinik-6 along with three others as a case has been lodged against them on murder charges," deputy commissioner of central Munshiganj, where the accident took place, told reporters.
He said the order was issued as the state-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) alleged that the owner and the captain were responsible for the disaster as they overloaded passengers, plied the ferry with an expired license and disregarded its instructions not to sail due to bad weather conditions.

Police recovered the bodies of seven missing victims, including the niece of the shipping minister, from different rivers in four districts today.
Deaths of 10 passengers of the ill-fated ship have been confirmed with police also recovering the body of a woman in a river in Barisal believed to be a victim of the capsize.
BIWTA officials earlier said under the expired licence, the ferry was allowed to carry 85 passengers, but had nearly 250 people on board when it capsized.

Inclement weather disrupted the rescue work as strong currents stirred up silt in the river which may have pushed the wreckage downstream from the site where the accident took place.

Three of the victims were close relatives of shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, who is facing intense criticism for failure to ensure safety of riverine routes.
Strong current in the turbulent river apparently upturned the ferry about 30km southwest of the capital on Monday while it was carrying nearly double the number of passengers than its capacity.
Over 100 passengers, however, were rescued alive by vessels and speedboats within hours of the accident.
Ferry accidents are common in riverine Bangladesh -- criss-crossed by some 230 river especially in the southern and northeastern regions -- with faulty design of boats and poor safety standards generally blamed for the disasters.

According to statistics tallied by the media, about 5,500 people have died in 658 ferry disasters since 1994 while 1500 people remained missing.