Two drown in Karnafuli River; another goes missing

KAPTAI CORRESPONDENT

Two tourists have drowned and another has gone missing as they were swept away by the tide while taking a bath in the Karnafuli River in the Kaptai upazila of Rangamati on Wednesday (May 11).

They all hail from Madarbari, Islamia, Sadarghat, Chattogram.

According to local sources, six friends, from Chittagong’s Sadarghat, were visiting Kaptai on Wednesday noon. At the time, they all went down to the Karnafuli River next to Shitarghat Temple for taking a bath.

All on a sudden, three of them were swept away by the tide. And one of them only – Diman Saha, 20 – managed to swim ashore somehow, in a dying condition though.

As the upazila administration came to know about it, they immediately informed the navy divers and Kaptai fire service.

The navy divers and Kaptai fire service rushed to the scene and began their rescue operation. During the operation, they pulled Lokash Baidya, 29, dead out of the river around 3:00pm.

The third of them, Apurba Saha, 19, still remained missing.

All the six friends visiting Kaptai are college students.

Until filing of this report, the fire service was carrying out their rescue operation.

Kaptai Upazila Nirbahi Officer Muntasir Jahan, Additional Superintendent of Police of Kaptai Circle Raushan Ara Rob have visited the scene.

Kaptai Upazila Nirbahi Officer Muntasir Jahan said that there has been a ban on tourists to take bath in the river, but they are obeying the ban only to often drown in the river.

For the last 12 days, four people have drowned in the river.