Abul Hossain Peyada, a leading businessman of Gournadi, told The Daily Star yesterday morning, "We have decided to block the Barisal-Dhaka Highway and close Gournadi and Torki river-ports, if the salvage operation of Digonto does not start within 24 hours."

A twister caught the 125-foot double-decker vessel and overturned it in an area between the river-ports of Ekhlaspur and Kanudia at 3:30am Sunday, 12 hours after it had left Torki of Gournadi upazila for Narayanganj with about 60 passengers on board. Witnesses claim at least 40 passengers of the launch remain missing.

Local people are vexed over the lack of coverage of Digonto mishap by the press and a complete black out in the electronic media. They also are angry with the local lawmakers for their absence and inactivity in this case.

A group of frogmen of Bangla-desh Internal Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) however visited the accident spot yesterday morning and located the place of the drowned boat.

Sources in Chandpur river-port office said port and district administration officials visited the accident spot of Digonto yesterday morning. Salvage ship Rustam which went back to its Narayanganj base yesterday morning after completing its works for Lighting Sun would be called to salvage Digonto, if necessary, they added.

Meanwhile, five more passengers of Digonto have been reported as missing, raising the number of listed missing persons to 20, without any dead body recovered so far.