Body of sunken oil tanker’s missing master recovered

New Age Online

The missing body of capsized oil tanker OT Southern Star 7 master, Mokhlesur Rahman, was recovered on Sunday morning from Shela river at Mrigomari area of Sunderbans, forest officials said.The divisional forest officer of east wing Amir Hossain said the body was seen floating on the spot, where the accident happened, at 7:30am this morning.Later locals recovered the body and handed over it to police. The body was sent to Mongla police statio.‘The body will be taken to Bagerhat General Hospital morgue for forensic investigation,’ he added.The master remained missing since the accident took place on early Tuesday when the oil tanker, carrying 3.57 lakh litres of furnace oil of Padma Oil Company, was hit by an empty cargo vessel amid dense fog.

The tanker, which was on its way to Gopalganj from Khulna depot, sank immediately, spilling through the oil in the river and the adjacent canals that posed serious threat to Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a UNESCO heritage site.The divisional forest office east division of the Sunderbans on Saturday hired 200 villagers and their 100 boats to manually clean up the oil slick from the Shela river and the nearby canals.According to a forest department release, the oil slick spread to 350 square kilometres of the Sunderbans.The oil slick robbed the livelihood of at least 10,000 villagers, mostly fishermen, living by the Shela river.

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