Brahmanbaria boat capsize: Trawler driver among 3 detained

Police have detained three people including the driver of a sand-laden trawler that hit passenger boat in Brahmanbaria’s Bijoynagar upazila, killing more than 20 people.

Police nabbed them with the help of locals from the upazila’s Charislampur on Friday night.

The detainees are: Zamir Mian, 35, driver of the sand-laden trawler, his assistants Md Khokon, 22, and Md Russell, 18. They are from Sholabari area of the district’s Sarail upazila.

Speaking to Prothom Alo, Brahmanbaria police superintendent Muhammad Anisur Rahman said three people including the driver of a sand-laden trawler were detained while they were trying to escape following the boat accident.

Shamim Hossain, a resident from Bijoynagar’s Patan union parishad, said, “The sand-laden trawler fled the scene hurriedly. But locals chased the engine-boat immediately. Later we detained the three people along with trawler from Charislampur and handed them over to police later”

At least 22 people, including seven children, were killed and scores remain missing as a trawler hit from behind a passenger boat, packed with over 100 people, that collided head on with a sand-laden cargo ship in Titas river at Laiska canal of Pattan union of Brahmanbaria's Bijoynagar upazila.

The sand-laden boat that hit the passenger boat from the opposite direction fled the scene immediately.