A 68-year-old man has drowned in the Padma river right in front of hundreds of people with none of them moving to rescue him.
Some of them only snapped photos and recorded videos of the sickening scene, some shared those on social media, particularly Facebook, and others beat their chests.
The elderly man, who met the end of his life at Betua Launch Terminal in Bhola’s Charfashion Upazila on Thursday, has so far remained missing.
Hailing from Paschim Zinnagarh village of the same upazila, he, along with his six-year-old grandson, Rakib, was travelling to his daughter Saleka Begum’s at Keraniganj in Dhaka.
His daughter, with whom his wife had been staying for one and a half month, sells bottled water at Sadarghat Launch Terminal,
Witnesses and police said Hanif fell into the river as he slipped while trying to board MV Farhan-5, a launch, from Karnaphuli-12, another launch.
Along with his grandson, he, according to them, had boarded the launch much before it left the terminal around 5:00pm.
Meanwhile, he disembarked leaving his grandson there in order to say his Asr prayers, only to narrowly miss the launch.
In an alternative way to catch the launch, they also said, he got onto another launch adjoining the leaving launch, and jumped only to fall into the river that had a strong current.
The elderly man struggled for some time to stay afloat, and sensing his imminent drowning, he had also signalled for rescue but none stepped in, they further said.
There were divers and other rescue equipment in the the MV Farhan-5 Launch, but the launch management did nothing in time to save him, they added.
A witness, Abu Siddik, who is a teacher by profession, said Hanif had tried to remain afloat in the river for around 10 minutes.
Facing passengers’ wrath, a launch staff threw a rope near Hanif but by then, he was nowhere to be found there, he said.
The launch authorities, however, have reached Hanif’s grandson to his family, local media reports say.
An officer at Charfashion Upazila Fire Service and Civil Defence Station, Md Imran Hossain said they rushed to the scene after coming to know about the incident through Facebook.
Rescue efforts were going on and the body could have been recovered by now if the launch authorities had informed them in time, he said.
Charfashion Police Station’s Officer-in-Charge Enamul Haq said they had got no trace of the body in the last two days and concerted efforts were going on to recover the body.
Charfashion Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Ruhul Amin said fire service men and police were in a joint rescue operation about this.