Body of tourist swept away by sea waves recovered in the Sundarbans

The body of tourist Md Riaz Ahmed (28), who went missing after being swept away by sea waves while visiting the Sundarbans, has been recovered. Two days after he went missing, the body was recovered on Saturday night by the Coast Guard and the Forest Department from Kanar Matha in the Alorkol area of Dublar Char in the Sundarbans.

Riaz Ahmed was a resident of Kathali Paschimpara in Bhaluka municipality of Mymensingh. His father is Abul Bashar Dhali.

According to Forest Department sources, on Thursday last, 19 tourists went to the Sundarbans on a wooden tourist boat named 'Ecotourism-2', taking a three-day travel permit from the Kadamtala Forest Station of the Satkhira Range. The boat was operated by Mizanur Rahman, a trawler owner from Satkhira.

The members of the tourist group were residents of Narsingdi, Mymensingh, Dhaka and Gazipur.

At around 1pm on Friday, before reaching Dublar Char in the Shoronkhola Range, the boat got stuck on a newly risen char. To move the boat, the boatman and several tourists got into the water and tried to push it.

At that time, four tourists were swept away by a big sea wave. Three of them managed to return, but Riaz went missing.

Immediately after the incident, local fishermen, Coast Guard members and Forest Department personnel began searching for Riaz. Later, his fellow travellers also joined the rescue work.

After searching the sea and surrounding areas for two days, his body was found at around 10pm on Saturday at Kanar Matha in the Alorkol area, about one and a half kilometres from where he had gone missing.

Md Shahinur Islam, range officer of the Satkhira Range of the Forest Department, said they received news of the recovery of the body through the Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of the Shoronkhola region of the Forest Department. Later, the body was recovered in the presence of a team of the Coast Guard and the Shoronkhola naval police.