The bodies are believed to be from a boat carrying 100 Rohingyas that capsized recently, said Habib from Shapuri Dip, Bangladesh. The boat had left Teknafon route to Malaysia before capsizing after storm warnings that a cyclone was forming and might strike Arakan state.

Locals spotted the corpses floating along the coastline between Baharcharaand Sabrang in the afternoon and informed police.

According to Teknaf police there were 12 children, 6 women and 14 men discovered. “Some of the bodies are (very) decomposed,” said Teknaf Police Sub-Inspector Didarul  Ferdous.

A corpse of a woman grasping her dead baby towards her chest was also found, said Kala, who witnessed police pulling the bodies from the sea.

Police reported to have found about 40,000 Kyat in the clothing of the victims.

A burial service for the victims has already taken place.

More bodies still floating near the coast have not yet been recovered.

According to local sources,scrupulous agents are taking advantage of desperate Rohingyastrying to escape human rights abuses by state authorities in Maungdaw and Buthidaung.

Recently, a ferry operator named Akbas from Pranpru, Mohamed Siddique from Kyauk Hlaikar (Dargadil) and Jafor Alam from Taungbro Letwe (Daybona) have been transporting people from Pranpru to St. Martin to board a large vesselto take them to Malaysia. The recent victims paid money for Malaysia agents to send them toSt. Martinwhere the boat capsized near the mouth of Naf River.

“The agents have connections with Nasaka(Burma Border Security force) to get them from Pranpru to St. Martin.The agents paid Nasaka 30,000 kyat per head after sending them to Malaysia,” one source told Kaladanpress.

Eight other bodies were also recovered by localsin the Maungdaw coastline near Aley Than Kyaw village recently. They have already been buried, said one villager from southern Maungdaw south.

Photo caption: Corpses recovered near the coastline in Teknaf.