DHAKA: Six bodies have been recovered after a boat with dozens of Rohingya on board capsized in the Bay of Bengal close to Bangladesh’s southeastern border with Myanmar, leaving an unknown number of people missing, an official said.
Lieutenant Colonel SM Ariful Islam, commanding officer of the 42nd Battalion of the Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB), told Xinhua Wednesday that “six bodies were recovered this morning.”
He could not tell when the boat capsized but guessed that it may capsize sometime yesterday.
On receipt of information, he said BGB, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Coast Guard have rushed there to recover the bodies which were floating in the Bay of Bengal near Shah Porir Island in Teknaf sub-district of the Cox’s Bazaar district, some 292 km southeast of capital Dhaka.
Islam said there is no information about how many passengers of the sunken boat managed to swim ashore after it capsized. He said usually Rohingya people come in some such small boats which can carry 25-30 people.
