About 30 went missing and were feared drowned as a boat packed with Rohingyas fleeing crack down on religious minority Muslims by Myanmar military capsized in the bordering river Naf early Monday, witnesses said.
The boat capsized at Jadimora point of the river in Myanmar side at 12:30am, said survivor Rehena Begum, 22, rescued by a fisherman of Jadimora of Nillha union of bordering upazila Teknaf in Cox’s Bazar.
‘I was swimming on the river Naff and saw one log, than I caught that and was floating with the log on the river,’ said Rehana, wife of Moulavi Salim Ullah of Daggiza Kyosuang, a village of Northern Maungdaw of Arakan province in Myanmar.
She and other sources said that 35 Rohingya Muslims including women and children were on board on a small wooden boat for crossing the river Naff from Yai Doun Chang, a village of Northern Maungdaw of Arakan at about 12:30am.
At one stage the boat capsized on the river due to overloading, Rhana said.
Mohammad Ismail, ferry boat owner of Jadimora village of Teknaf was the sailor of the ferry boat, local sources said.
After being rescued, Rehena told journalists that Ismail sailed the boat despite some passengers requested him not to go overloaded.
It capsized as it reached mid-river, she added.
‘I saw a fishing boat was returning Bangladesh side than I sought help and they were kind-enough to rescue me…They kept me in a mangrove forest at Jadimora,’ She added.
‘I lost my sister, my mother in-law and also seven relatives in this incident,’ she said.
Border Guard Bangladesh battalion commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Md Abu Zar Al Jahid at Teknaf said that he came to know the accident and rescue of a woman.
‘Survivor Rehena is now in BGB custody and has been sent to health centre for treatment,’ he told New Age.
Influx of persecuted Rohingyas into Bangladesh continued as about 650 Rohingya Muslims entered the country on Monday.
Agence France-Presse adds: A Bangladeshi fisherman said that he had rescued a Rohingya woman who told him her ‘overcrowded’ boat had sunk in the river Naf after it was chased by a Myanmar army speedboat.
‘We heard a woman’s desperate cry for help in the morning while we were fishing in the Naf…We quickly paddled to the spot and saw she was fighting to stay afloat,’ fisherman Suman Das told AFP over phone.
‘The woman told us that their boat was overcrowded with Rohingya villagers who tried to cross the river to enter Bangladesh,’ said Suman.
The woman did not know what had happened to the others and Suman could not say how many people were on the boat.
A Rohingya source told AFP over phone that the bodies of 13 women and children, two of whom had bullet wounds, had washed ashore at his village on Myanmar’s side of the Naf.
This could not be independently confirmed, however, and Bangladesh police and border guards said they were not aware of the disaster.
An estimated 30,000 Rohingyas have been forced to leave their homes since an October crackdown by the Myanmar army on Rohingyas in Rakhine state, where many of them live.
At least 10,000 have arrived in Bangladesh, the United Nations said the past week, although Bangladesh said it had prevented large numbers from entering.
Myanmar has denied allegations of abuse, but has also banned foreign journalists and independent investigators from accessing the area to investigate.