Pinak-6 probe records witness accounts

pinakGSThe inquiry committee formed by the shipping ministry over the Pinak-6 ferry disaster has recorded the accounts of 14 people.

The committee members took the statements of five survivors and two witnesses at the Padma Rest House in Mawa on Tuesday, the first day of their work.

Later, they took the version of one witness at the Kathalbari pier and four at the Kawrakandi pier.

The members also recorded the statement of the accident-time BIWTA inspector and plaintiff in the ferry mishap case Zahangir Hossain Bhuiyan, sacked for negligence of duty, on a ship while crossing the Padma river.

Committee chief Nur-ur-Rahman, a joint secretary of the shipping ministry, later told reporters: “Accounts of all present have been taken. We’ve tried to know how and why the launch capsized.”

He hoped that the committee could submit its report within the stipulated 10 days.

Pinak-6 sank in the Padma river near Munshiganj’s Mawa on Aug 4.

The shipping ministry formed a seven-member probe body the same day.

The authorities abandoned the Pinak search on Monday after failing to trace the launch even eight days after the accident.

Bodies of 46 people were retrieved from the river following the incident. Twenty corpses were handed over to the relations after identification.

Fifteen decomposed bodies were buried unidentified in Madaripur.

According to the administration, 61 more launch passengers are still missing.

bdnews24

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