Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept 26: Seven more bodies were recovered today after a boat carrying religious pilgrims capsized in Bangladesh, taking the death count to 32, police said.
On Sunday, a tiny boat carrying largely women and children overturned in a river as bystanders shrieked in fear from the shore. The boat was headed to a well-known temple.
The occurrence in a distant northern region was the most recent in a spate of disasters of a similar nature that were attributed to inadequate upkeep and overcrowding in the low-lying delta nation.
The seven remains were discovered in the Karotoa river, downstream from where the boat sank close to the town of Boda, according to district police commander Sirajul Huda. More than the up to 50 pilgrims who the police claimed were on board on Sunday, it carried over 90 individuals.
“Sixty people are still missing,” Huda told AFP.
“It was carrying three times its capacity. There were heavy rains in the morning and that is why when the ferrying began, pilgrims packed the boat to make it quickly to the temple,” he added.
The overcrowded boat abruptly overturned, scattering the passengers into the murky brown river, as seen in footage from a mobile phone that Channel 24 broadcast on television.
Dozens of onlookers on the shore began screaming and shouting. At the moment, the weather was calm.
Every year, thousands of Hindus travel to Bangladesh to visit the Bodeshwari Temple.
