The bodies of two of the three people missing in the sinking of a fishing trawler and a speed boat were recovered from the coast of Shahporir Dwip in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar district on Friday morning.
The deceased were identified as Md Fahad, 28, and Md Ismail, 27, residents of Konar Para in St. Martin’s Island. The two were the occupants of the speed boat and members of the rescue team of the trawler's passengers.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Teknaf Police Station Md Osman Gani has confirmed the recovery of the two bodies.
He said local people informed the police of it on Friday morning after seeing the two bodies floating on Baharchhara Bara Deil beach in Teknaf. On receiving information, a police team from Shamlapur police outpost recovered the two bodies and informed the relatives in St. Martin’s Island of the incident. St. Martin's Union Parishad Chairman Mujibur Rahman said that the relatives received the two bodies at the jetty of Shahporir Dwip in Teknaf at about noon.
On Wednesday, a fishing trawler named FB Saddam sank in Golarchar estuary in the sea near Shahporir Island on its way to Saint Martin’s Island with daily goods and passengers from Teknaf around 2:30pm. The trawler had six crew and 11 passengers. The trawler passed Shahporir Dwip around 2:30pm and sank due to bad weather when it reached Golarchar estuary in the Bay of Bengal. Soon after the incident, some fishing trawlers, some speed boats from St. Martin's wharf started rescue operations in the sea. They rescued 16 people of the trawler. Trawler passenger Noor Mohammad Shawkat, 22, was not found. Shawkat is a resident of St. Martin's Union and a student of Teknaf Government College.
At one stage of the rescue operation in the sea on Wednesday evening, a speed boat sank in the sea due to heavy waves, and the two rescuers, Md Fahad and Md Ismail, went missing. At the same time, three other rescuers Abdullah, Arif and Utmat Ali in the speed boat swam to the shore through Shahporir Dwip and Sabrang coast around 10:00pm on Wednesday.
