Authorities in Bangladesh investigating the sinking of a ferry with nearly 250 people on board have lodged murder charges against the owner and five others, including the captain, taking an unprecedented step in a country where such disasters are all too common.
Police were seeking the captain, who was among the survivors, the owner and four others to answer the case brought against them. This is the first time in Bangladesh that a murder case has been filed against any ferry owner or crew for violating safety rules.
The six people charged are accused of murder by the inspector of the state-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA). The agency has accused them of overloading passengers, operating the ferry with an expired license and disregarding instructions from the river authority not to sail due to bad weather conditions.
The ferry, the MV Pinak-6, went down on Monday in a river swollen by monsoon rains about 18 miles southwest of the capital, Dhaka. The ill-fated Pinak had a capacity to carry 85 passengers, according to the inland transport authority but was carrying almost three times that number.
Before he set sail, an official had told the captain that the ship was over capacity, according to The New York Times.
By early Wednesday, rescuers battling strong currents and choppy waves on the Padma River had given up hope of finding alive many of the 133 people still missing, officials in Munshiganj district said.
There were 110 survivors, and seven bodies have been found. The people allegedly responsible, who could face life in prison or the death penalty, are still on the lam.
"Police are trying to arrest them, but they all went into hiding," said Mohammad Saiful Hasan Badal, deputy commissioner of the Munshiganj district, where the ferry went down.
"If charges are proved, then they might get capital punishment, since the case has been filed as a murder case."
Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties sometimes running into the hundreds.
Committees of inquiry have been established after past sinkings, and they have made recommendations for changes in regulations, but overcrowding remains a common factor in such accidents.
Al Jazeera and Reuters
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