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Police have arrested the administrator of a Facebook-based travel group on charges of “negligence” after two tourists died and another went missing during a trekking expedition in a remote hilly area of Bandarban.
Borsha Islam, 24, who runs the group Tour Expert, was detained on Saturday in Alikadam with assistance from the Army, said Alikadam police chief Mirza Zahir Uddin, bdnews24.com reports.
The arrest followed a complaint filed earlier in the day by Habibur Rahman, the father of one of the deceased, Smriti Akhter, who accused the organiser of negligence leading to the incident.
According to the case details, Borsha led a 33-member group that departed for the mountains on the night of Jun 8. On Jun 10, she moved forward along the Andharmanik trail with 12 tourists and a local guide.
The remaining 20, including Smriti, were sent back to Alikadam under the supervision of an inexperienced individual, it added.
On the afternoon of Jun 11, a sudden flash flood struck the Shamuk Waterfall area, sweeping away three members of the group – Smriti, Hasan Chowdhury Shuvo, and Sheikh Zubairul Islam. Police later recovered the bodies of two victims on Jun 12 and 13. Hasan Chowdhury remains missing.
The case accuses the organiser of failing to arrange proper safety measures, ignoring weather warnings, and conducting the trip without required administrative permission, leading to the fatal incident.