After she got the news of her mother’s death overnight, Aduri Begum started with her family for her hometown Faridpur from Dhaka on Monday morning.
With public transportation suspended amidst a coronavirus lockdown but autorickshaws plying the roads, they reached Munshiganj’s Shimulia and took a speedboat ride with more than two dozen other passengers across the Padma river to Banglabazar pier in Madaripur’s Shibchar. Some water transports are still operational during the ban while cargo vessels are allowed to run. The speedboat reached near the pier in Shibganj and Aduri was hoping to get a last glimpse of her deceased mother.
Then calamity struck. The boat hit a sand-laden cargo vessel. Rescuers have pulled out 26 bodies, including those of Aduri’s husband Arzu Sarder and their one-and-a-half-year-old son “Yamin”.
Injured in the collision, Aduri was rushed to the hospital. Later she identified her family members among the bodies kept on the Dotara Government Primary School grounds near the Banglabazar pier. “I’ve lost everything,” she said, weeping. Aduri and the few other fortunate survivors blamed the speedboat driver for the accident, saying her was speeding “recklessly” right from the start of their trip. The bulk carrier was anchored near the coast, they said.
