The whereabouts of four people who went missing after two boats sank in the Padma river at Ghospur in Kumarkhali upazila in Kushtia have not been found yet.
The local firefighters are still on search at different spots of Padma.
The incident took place in Ghoshpur area of Sadipur Union around 9am on Tuesday (July 8).
The missing persons are Jewel Sheikh, 30, son of Haran Sheikh of Jamalpur village in Bheramara upazila, Zakir Hossain, 25, son of Nazumul Haque, Shariful Islam, 31, son of Abdul Jalil and Juba, 32, son of Ranjit.
The rescued persons are Zahir (33), son of Tuka Pramanik of the same area, Bipul (30), son of Katar, Bakul (40), son of Amjad, Saju (35), son of Shahjamal, Tade (32), son of Fazal and Sultan (30), son of Agar. Manik’s son Mansur (32), Khabir’s son Jamin (30) and Shamim’s son Rifat (15). All of them are farmers and day laborers by profession.
Sources said all of them come to Ghoshpur of Kumarkhali from Bheramara. They rented two boats to cut grass and graze in the middle of the Padma.
Divided into 4 and 9 people in those two boats, they tried to reach the char by crossing the rough Padma. The boat of 9 people sank in the middle of the river.
When others tried to board on the boat carried the four, it sank.
Nine of them swam ashore and fell ill. Local people rescued them and the four people are missing.
Mansur Ali, a resident of Jamalpur village and a survivor of the boat sinking, said the boat sank in the middle of the river. They managed to swim 9 people including the boatman but the other 4 could not get up.
Sadipur Union Parishad Chairman Tofazzal Hossain said, they have given first aid to the rescued ones. They are well.
Kumarkhali Fire Service official Amiya Kumar Biswas said the incident took place in a remote area. They were trying to look for the missing people.
Pabna Fire Service Assistant Director Saifuzzaman said the fire service Pabna team reached the spot soon after they were informed the incident. They started a rescue operation with the help of locals. However, no one was rescued till the report was written at 3:30 pm.