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The official death toll was set at 39 -- the number of bodies found -- when the authorities wrapped up their search operation on Friday, causing deep frustration among the people who had waited on the banks of the river for their missing relatives for two days.
Following the closure of the government's search operation, the people improvised their own search operation Saturday, recovering seven dead bodies from the river and raising the death toll to 46. There are still missing persons, who are presumably dead, from the sunken launch.
According to the reports, the divers of the Fire Service and Civil Defense and the Bangladesh Navy arrived at the scene to begin the rescue operation five hours after the boat capsized at about 4:00 p.m., and begun their operation after one more hour.
The government paid 2,000 taka (just under US$30) to the families of each of the deceased persons, and promised to pay 20,000 taka (US$292) as further compensation. Top government officials expressed "shock" over the deaths. A five-member probe committee was formed headed by a senior official of the Ministry of Shipping to inquire into the incident.
Quoting the officials of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, reports revealed that the launch did not have the proper safety certificates to be in operation; however, the owner had managed to get a temporary "token" allowing it to operate for 45 days from the Department of Shipping through inappropriate means. There are also allegations that the boat, the MV Shourav-1, had a capacity of only 85 persons while it had around 140 on board when it sank.
This is not the first time for a passenger craft to capsize in Bangladesh. Every year the nation experiences a couple of such deadly incidents, causing hundreds of deaths. Each time the government authorities perform their duty by issuing condolence messages following incomplete, inefficient and irresponsible rescue attempts, as they did on this occasion.
The authorities were so shameless that some of them still showed their faces in public when the relatives recovered dead bodies by their own efforts after the official search was abandoned.
The government authorities have never responded to questions as to how a vessel without proper safety certification could be allowed to operate, putting the lives of its passengers at risk. Every year similar, or even higher, numbers of deaths occur, while the government does nothing but issue one condolence message after another, like a kind of ritual.
The government has so many institutions that operate only in name. They cannot protect the lives of the people, or even ensure their funerals after death. Who should be liable for failing to monitor the overloading and operation of a boat without proper safety certification -- even though such safety certificates hold little credibility, with the issuing institutions bent on receiving bribes rather than ensuring compliance with real standards?
By declaring the compensation of 20,000 takas for each victim who died in this accident, do the authorities mean this is the value of a human life in Bangladesh? Does this represent their sense of duty and love for the citizens?
The government must understand that expressing shock on a piece of paper and canceling the search operation for the dead half-way through reflects its utter irresponsibility. Had they even a minimum of feeling for the people it would not be so.
These actions show that the authorities are sunk in a sea of irresponsibility and inefficiency. The taxpayers have a right to life, yet the authorities deny them the ultimate right to a funeral after senselessly losing their lives. The government has no right to make such a mockery of the people's right to live and die in dignity.
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
