Home ›› 05 Mar 2022 ›› Front
The 28 sailors of the MV Banglar Samriddhi ship, who are staying in a bunker in Ukraine, were not evacuated on Friday.
As explosions and gunshots were heard near the bunker, they were not evacuated and taken out of the Ukrainian border.
Captain Mujibur Rahman, general manager (chartering and planning) of Bangladesh Shipping Corporation (BSC), said the sailors are in the bunker near the Olvia port and would be there for another day.
“It was decided that they would be evacuated on Friday. But it did not seem safe for them to get out of the bunker because of the explosion and gunfire sounds.”
Mujibur further said the shipping corporation was in frequent touch with the sailors. “When everything seems fine, they will be evacuated from the war zone.”
Hadisur Rahman, a third engineer of Banglar Samriddhi, a cargo vessel of BSC, died on the ship in a missile explosion on Wednesday afternoon. The ship has been stranded at the Olvia port since the Russia-Ukraine crisis began.
The explosion also severely damaged the vessel, which was then declared abandoned. The 28 sailors were taken out and put in the bunker.
The sailors would first be taken to Romania via Moldova, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen told reporters on Friday. “They will then be brought back to Bangladesh.”
On Friday, the mother of Omar Farooq Tuhin, chief engineer of the ship Khairunnesa, came to the Bangladesh Merchant Marine Officers’ Association (BMMOA) office in Chattogram. Her son is among the 28 sailors.
“I am very worried about my son and how he will come back. I urge the authorities to bring him back quickly, and I want everyone’s cooperation in this,” she added.
Meanwhile, allegations of negligence on the part of BSC in its decision to send the ship to Ukraine amid the ongoing crisis have surfaced, and BMMOA has demanded an investigation.
In a press conference at its office in Chattogram on Friday, BMMOA demanded a high-level inquiry committee be formed in this connection.
Its General Secretary Shawkat Hossain said a sailor had died and others were now in misery due to the overall mismanagement of BSC in ship operations.
Who would be responsible for this death and loss, he questioned.
He said the area was declared a war zone on February 15 and it is questionable why the ship entered the area on February 22.
The matter needs to be investigated, Shawkat added.
