The bodies of eight Bangladeshis who died on 14 February in a boat capsize in the Mediterranean on their way from Libya to Italy have reached the country.
Saudi Airlines’ SV808 carrying the eight bodies landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) at 11:49am on Thursday.
The deceased are identified as Mamun Sheikh, Imrul Kayes Apon, Sajal Bairagi, Md Abdur Kaiser, Nayan Biswas, Rifat Sheikh, Sajib Kazi, and Rasel Sheikh. All of them are residents of Gopalganj and Madaripur.
Family members and relatives of the deceased demanded immediate handover of the bodies without post-mortem, but police sent the bodies to Dhaka Medical College morgue for autopsy as a murder case was filed with the Airport Police Station in connection with the incident.
Later, the bodies were scheduled to hand over to the family members on Thursday night. Each of the deceased family will be given Tk 35,000 for completing final rituals.
According to Associate Director (Migration and Youth Platform) at BRAC, Shariful Hasan, 11 more Bangladeshis, who were also on the boat, have already returned to the country and one of them claimed that deaths of their eight fellow passengers were not “an accident”.
Consequently, Sunil Bairagi, father of Sajal Bairagi, on 19 April filed a case at Airport Police Station accusing Juboraj Kazi and Mosharraf Kazi of organised murder under Section 302/34 and violations of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act. According to the case statement, Sunil Bairagi alleged that his son Sajal Bairagi was willing to go to Italy to change his fate. Juboraj Kazi, a person he previously knew, and Mosharraf Kazi, who is staying in Libya, offered to send him to Italy in a legal way in exchange for Tk 14 lakh. Sajal and his family agreed to this proposal.
From 17 November last year to 8 January this year, Sunil handed over Tk 13,00,000 to Juboraj Kazi in three phases. Sajal left for Dubai on 31 December last year but his father couldn’t contact his son after 8 January this year.
Sunil later came to know that Sajal was among the eight Bangladeshi fatalities in the Mediterranean Sea capsizing incident, said the case statement.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Touhidul Islam said they are investigating the case to arrest those involved with the incident.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Bangladesh Embassy in Libya announced that the bodies would reach Bangladesh on Thursday through a Facebook post.
“The coffins carrying the bodies are scheduled to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 12:15pm on 2 May on a Saudia Airlines flight,” the post read.
Officials of the embassy handed over the bodies to the authorities at Tunis-Carthage International Airport on Tuesday in the presence of Major General (retd) Abul Hasnat Mohammad Khairul Bashar, the Bangladeshi Ambassador to Libya and non-resident envoy to Tunisia.
According to the Facebook post, the Bangladesh Embassy in Libya’s Tripoli worked closely with Tunisia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and local city authorities to complete the post-mortem, identification, issuance of death, and medical certificates immediately after the accident.
The Africa wing of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also coordinated with other ministries to repatriate the bodies. The necessary expenses were covered by funds from the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment. The Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Law helped make the process successful.
On 14 February, an Italy-bound boat carrying 52 fortune seekers and a sailor capsized at 4:30am (local time) five hours after the vessel left the Libyan coast town of Zuwara.
Some 44 passengers, including 27 Bangladeshis, were rescued. The boat was also carrying eight Pakistanis, five Syrians and three Egyptians.
A total of 9 passengers, eight Bangladeshis and one Pakistan national, died in the incident.