Search fails to locate launch

Rescuers from several government agencies kept sweeping the turbulent Padma river with sonar detectors but failed to spot either the sunken launch or over a hundred of the missing people even after two days of the fatal ferry accident in Munshiganj.
Meanwhile, two bodies-one of a young woman and another of a man-were found floating Tuesday in the Meghna River in Chandpur and local police officials believe they were among the victims of Monday morning's launch capsize.
If so, the bodies of those missing after the launch accident off Mawa terminal are being washed away from the Padma into the Meghna through the Chandpur confluence as the mighty rivers remained rough under the impact of a low over the Bay of Bengal.
Police said the body of a woman found floating in the Meghna in Chandpur on Tuesday morning could be of one of the missing victims of the launch capsize in Munshiganj.
The bodies of the 25-year-old woman and about a 30-year-old man were recovered from the Meghna river in Haimchar upazila of Chandpur.
"We suspect that the woman whose body was recovered might be one of the victims of Munshiganj launch capsize," Md Moniruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Haimchar Police Station, was quoted in an online report in Dhaka.
As the man's body has already started to decompose, police suspected that the victim might have died two to three days back.
The double-decker Pinak-6 launch sank in the Padma waters in Lauhajang upazila of Munshiganj with around 200 people aboard on its way to Mawa Ghat from Kawrakandi terminal.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and other government and opposition leaders expressed their grave shock and sorrow over the tragedy, which struck at a time when people were returning to the capital after enjoying the Eid festival at their ancestral homes.            
An army of rescuers conducted search for the second day Tuesday but could not yet locate the sunken motor-vessel, reports said.
Soon after the mishap, locals rescued two female passengers from the river but they died later.
A total of 120 people were still missing, Deputy Commissioner of Munshiganj Saiful Hasan Badal was quoted as saying.
A water vessel named 'Jarip-10' started from Chittagong around 9:30am Tuesday for the spot as it is capable of locating a sunken vessel deep into the water, said Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan, who visited Mawa Ghat.
 "It will be very hard to rescue the launch if it is covered with the river silt," the minister said.
Meanwhile, relatives of missing victims blocked a road in front of Padma Rest House near the Mawa terminal for an hour since 8:30am Tuesday to protest what they said slow pace in the salvage operation.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, police, coastguards, fire service and Munshiganj administration were jointly conducting the salvage operation.
The launch, allegedly heavily overloaded in breach of the law, sank amid high winds in the choppy waters where the depth of the river is around 90 feet. The shipping ministry formed another seven-member committee headed by its joint secretary Nurur Rahman. The committee will submit its report in 10 working days.
The disaster struck less than two and a half months after a launch had capsized in the Meghna River in Munshiganj that left at least 55 people dead.