Until Saturday, the official count for missing persons of the Pinak-6 capsize was over hundred, but on Sunday it was pruning to a two-digit figure.
According to the Munshiganj district administration, 61 people are now missing, which was 122 the previous day.
Authorities claim the latest figures to be ‘authentic’.
The police are yet to trace the exact number of passengers on board the ferry, which sank on Aug 4 in the river Padma near Munshiganj’s Mawa.
The control room, set up after the disaster at Mawa, also does not have the count of survivors of the ferry mishap.
According to unofficial estimates, the ferry was carrying over 300 passengers.
A day after the capsize on Tuesday (Aug 5), Louhajang Police Station OC Tofazzal Hossain had said that 169 persons were missing.
But the same day Munshiganj’s Deputy Commissioner (DC) Saiful Hasan informed the media that they had prepared a list of 127 missing persons based on complaints of the victims’ relatives.
On Wednesday night, DC Hasan said 124 persons were missing, but the count then was put at 134 on Thursday and 126 on Friday.
The list with the authorities on Saturday showed 122 missing people, which was almost halved down in the night to 67.
At a press briefing on Sunday at the Mawa Ferry Landing Station, DC Hasan said 62 persons were missing and 46 bodies were recovered in the seven days between Aug 4 and Aug 10.
The missing people list was further trimmed down on Sunday afternoon, though the body count did not rise.
Inspector Fariduddin Ahmed of Mawa Control Room said the count of missing persons was 61.
Speaking to bdnews24.com on the matter, Munshiganj DC Saiful Hasan said: “The list which was disseminated until now was based on information by relatives at Mawa.
“Several names were listed more than once in that. We had prepared the updated list by contacting relatives. This one is authentic.”
Inspector Ahmed echoed the district administration chief, though he failed to provide an exact figure for the survivors or the passengers on board the sunken ferry.
“It cannot be asserted accurately how many people were on the ferry as we do not have the exact figure of survivors of the capsize,” he said.
On Monday night (Aug 4), after the ferry went down, Louhajang police OC Tofazzal Hossain told bdnews24.com Pinak-6, which had a capacity to carry 120 to 150 passengers at a time, was carrying almost 350 people.
He had also said 110 people were rescued immediately after the passenger ferry went down, close to the figure given by the Munshiganj DC the same day.
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said Pinak-6 had taken on board over 100 extra passengers at a terminal halfway to Mawa from Kewrakandi.
“We have found that the launch had around 170 people when it started from Kewrakandi. But it took on board more than 100 passengers at the Katthalbarhi launch terminal,” he told reporters after visiting the accident site in the Padma River at Mawa last Tuesday.
“If it had come to Mawa directly, it would not have capsized. Overloading of passengers is the main reason for this disaster,” he added.
Taking into account the minister’s statement, the ferry was carrying over 250 people.
But adding up the official figures of 110 survivors, 46 body recoveries and 64 missing persons, it comes to 218 passengers — nowhere near the figures by either the rescuers or the survivors and even the minister.
Source: bdnews24
