MUNSHIGANJ: Rescuers have recovered 54 bodies from a ferry that sank in a river during a storm in central Bangladesh, resuming their search on Saturday after protests by relatives of people missing in the disaster.

Officials said that 12 people were still unaccounted for, although there has been confusion over how many were aboard the ferry M.V. Miraz-4 when it sank on Thursday in the River Meghna.

Earlier on Saturday, authorities called the search off after retrieving 40 bodies, but hundreds of relatives and local residents protested at the scene of the accident in Munshiganj district, forcing authorities to announce that they would continue to look for bodies.

“I haven’t got my brother, where is he? Why do authorities stop searching?” asked Mohammad Moniruzzaman.

By late Saturday afternoon, a total of 54 bodies had been recovered, said Shamsuddoha Khandaker, chief of Bangladesh’s water transport authority.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2014