A worker of a Sitakunda shipbreaking
yard in Chittagong
Moinul Hossain, 28, son of Sabed Mia,
from Manda upazila of Naogaon, was a worker of Jahanabad Shipbreakers, a yard
of Prime Group in Kadam Rasul area of Jahanabad under the upazila.
Officer-in-Charge (OC) Nur Mohammad of
Sitakunda Police Station confirmed the accident.
Moinul, working inside a scrap ship,
slipped and fell into an elevator shaft around 11:30am, Tapan Datta, convenor
of Ship Breaking Workers Trade Union Forum, told The Daily Star.
Seriously injured, Moinul was brought
to Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) at 1:00pm where the doctors
declared him dead.
One of his co-workers, preferring
anonymity, said the lift was removed earlier and the space was empty. “It was quite dark there and there was no
cautionary sign to pass the area,” he said.
With yesterday's accident, 16 workers
have so far died in 8 separate accidents in 8 shipbreaking yards in Sitakunda
this year. Of the deceased, 6 died in October due to toxic gas poisoning.
Shipbreaking yards in the coastal
region have been conducting operations without adequate safeguards for years,
disregarding repeated accidents and Supreme Court directives to ensure security
of the workers' lives.
Source: The Daily Star. 22 November 2011
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