Owner of Bangladesh ferry arrested on murder charge after accident

By Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - A special Bangladesh anti-crime unit on Wednesday arrested the owner of a ferry that sank in a river killing about 110 people, the first time authorities took such action in a country where shipping accidents with heavy loss of life are common. Authorities had lodged murder charges against the owner, Abu Bakar Siddique, 60, and five other people including the captain, for overloading, operating the ferry with an expired license and disregarding the river authority's instructions not to sail because of bad weather. "Acting on a tip-off, he was arrested during a raid on a house," Mufti Mahmud Khan, legal and media director of the interior ministry's elite anti-crime unit, the Rapid Action Battalion, told Reuters. Low-lying Bangladesh, with extensive inland waterways and slack safety standards, has an appalling record of ferry accidents, with casualties at times running into the hundreds. Read More http://ift.tt/1l247cM