The dead included 33 men, 19 women and nine children.

MV Lighting Sun and MV Diganta, another double-decker launch but smaller in size, sank in the Meghna close to Chandpur about the same time during a pre-monsoon storm in the early hours of Sunday.

Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority officials said of the bodies retrieved from MV Lighting Sun, 28 were found trapped and 17 under the upturned launch, which was heading for Dhaka from Madaripur with some 250 passengers on board. MV Diganta was sailing with 40 passengers aboard from Torki of Gournadi to Narayanganj.

Abul Kalam Master of Munshiganj has meanwhile been identified as the owner of MV Lighting Sun.

The BIWTA rescue vessel, MV Rustam, pulled up the sunken launch and took it to the shore.

Salvage operation of MV Diganta was yet to start.

Relatives of some of the dead said they do not have the money to take the bodies to their village homes. They urged officials present at the spot to make some arrangements for transporting the bodies home but the officials said there were no funds for it as yet.

"I have found the dead bodies of my sister, sister-in-law and my niece. My wife is still missing," said Mohammed Sujan from Kalkini of Madaripur. "I don't know how to take those bodies to my village as I do not have money," he added.

Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain ,however, told journalists the government would do everything to send the bodies home and the families of the dead would be compensated.

About MV Lighting Sun, leader of the salvage team Aminur Rahman said, "The launch was not designed properly and was unfit to ply in the wet season."

MV Rustam started salvage operation early Sunday but stopped due to low tide and exhaustion of the rescuers. It resumed operation yesterday morning and continued till the afternoon.

The rescue ship was supposed to salvage MV Diganta once it was finished with the MV Lighting Sun.

The river police filed a case and arrested three of the launch crew from a hospital.

Some 1,700 people have been killed in six launch disasters in Chandpur in the last 10 years, local sources said.

Our Barisal correspondent reports: Salvage operation of MV Diganta did not start until yesterday evening. Witnesses claimed about 40 passengers were missing in the launch capsize.

Mahfuzul Huq, upazila nirbahi officer of Gournadi, however, said only one passenger was missing.