Acclaimed diver is 'our hero'
2005-05-19 20:50
Aricha - The crowd waits in silence, all eyes on one skinny man in a diving suit. If anyone can find the bodies of the scores missing in Bangladesh's latest ferry disaster, it will be Abul Khaer.
After a ferry carrying more than 100 people went down in a storm in central Bangladesh on Tuesday, a team of divers is preparing to search the sunken vessel for bodies.
Khaer, 37, is Bangladesh's most skilled firefighter and diver, according to fire service chiefs and others who have watched him in action.
When a ferry sank near Dhaka in February, Khaer dived more than a dozen times in one hour, pulling out 47 bodies from the sunken ferry.
In three dives alone, he recovered 24 corpses by tying them with ropes and pulling them carefully to the surface.
An ordinary hero
"They say, we don't have heroes, but this diver is ours," said Lieutenant Commander Mahbubur Rashid of the Bangladesh Navy.
"He doesn't think about himself. Once I saw him shaking so badly I thought he might have hypothermia but the next day he was there again, ready for duty.
Nurul Haq, Khaer's trainer and assistant director of Dhaka fire brigade, ranks him as the nation's best firefighter and diver.
"He is unparalleled; tireless, he never gives up," he said.
Khaer has lost count of the hundreds of bodies he has recovered in his 15-year diving career.
Before being called to the scene of Tuesday's accident, he spent the day searching for a group of children in Dhaka's Buriganga River.
The families of many drowning victims have the dedication of Khaer and his colleagues to thank for giving them a body to bury.
Tough living conditions
Thousands of ferries ply Bangladesh's network of 230 rivers each day providing transport for more than 100 000 poor, rural people.
The divers often have to battle dangerous currents and take risks far beyond the call of duty get the job done.
"In diving, it is normal that you only dive for a certain period of time each day," said Salim Newaz Khan, head of Dhaka fire brigade.
"But these boys often carry on despite the risks to their health and a salary of only 4 400 taka a month (R442)," he said.
The reason is simple, added Khan. The country's small band of fire brigade and navy divers know if they can recover bodies quickly they can be returned to families in better condition, lessening their distress.
Colleagues say this gives Khaer the motivation to keep going. They describe him as "modest and a little shy" and say he takes pride in his achievements.
In 1990 he was credited with saving the lives of 300 female workers in a factory fire and he holds a firefighting record for being able to climb 13.5m in six seconds.
The job, however, takes its emotional toll.
"My most difficult dive was in Eastern Bangladesh after a ferry capsized with a wedding party on board," he said.
"I found the bride and groom both dressed in their wedding clothes. It was a very painful moment."