Search called off for missing AUST students

Rescuers have given up on hopes of finding two students of Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology (AUST) seven days after they went missing in Bay of Bengal off Saint Martin’s Island. Coast Guard Teknaf Station Commander Lt Quazi Harun-ur Rashid said the search was officially called off on Sunday evening. He, however, said they will keep regular watch on the sea in case the bodies of the two students, Sabbir Hasan and Ishtiaq Bin Mahmud Udoy, turn up. Apart from the island, Rashid told reporters that they had also searched the coasts of Teknaf Upazila, Shah Parir Dwip, Cox’s Bazar beach and Kutubdia island. The Navy and Coastguards had begun the search on April 14, the day four students had gone missing while swimming off the St Martin’s Island in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf. It continued even after bodies of two of them, Shahriar Rahman Noman and Golam Rahim Bappy, were recovered after two days. Thirty-four students of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) from AUST had gone to the island, near Cox’s Bazar, on an excursion on their own to celebrate Pahela Baishakh, first day of the Bangla New Year. Nine of them were swept away by a huge surge when they went to the sea on Apr 14 afternoon. Five were rescued by locals and Coastguards and rushed to Teknaf Upazila Health Complex. But two of them, Monfezul Islam and Saddam Hossain, died later, according to bdnews24.com.