Bangladesh has ordered "a massive search" after a motorboat packed with about 135 illegal immigrants capsized in the Bay of Bengal close to Bangladesh's southeastern border with Myanmar, leaving some 122 people missing, officials said Thursday.

They said although the overloaded wooden boat capsized Sunday near Shah Parir Island in Teknaf under Bangladesh's Cox's Bazaar district, some 292 southeast of capital Dhaka, the incident came to light only Tuesday after six survivors rescued by fishermen conveyed the information to the law enforcers.

"We've alerted officials in the Coast Guard, Border Guard of Bangladesh (BGB) and relevant agencies, asking them for a massive search in Bangladesh sea territory," Mohammad Jashimuddin, acting administration chief of the Cox's Bazaar, told Xinhua Thursday.

He said the law enforcers have been asked to arrest nine members of a human trafficking syndicate which was accused in a case filed by one of the survivors.

"We've come to know that some 122 people are still missing," Lieutenant Colonel Zahid Hasan, commanding officer of the 42nd Battalion of the BGB, told Xinhua.

A police official in Cox's Bazaar told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that "many people are feared to have drowned."

Hasan said so far there is no exact information about the sunken boat's six passengers who managed to swim ashore after it capsized about 50 nautical miles southwest of Shah Parir Island in Teknaf.

"Some survivors are not approaching us being scared if the law enforcers detain them for trying to go to Malaysia illegally," he said.

Mohammad Forhad, officer-in-charge of Teknaf Police station, said two-thirds of the victims were Rohingya Muslims while others come from Cox's Bazaar's Teknaf and Moheshkhali sub-districts.

He said survivor Abu Bakar lodged the case in Teknaf police station Wednesday against the syndicate for tempting and cheating many like him to go to Malaysia illegally by the boat which was excessively overloaded.

"The syndicate, through which we were illegally going to Malaysia, told us that there was a ship for us in deep sea. We didn't know whether there was really a ship for us there in the deep sea. The boat had tilted and capsized before it reached the ship," Hasan, who also talked to Xinhua Tuesday, quoted Bakar as saying.

According to the survivor, the boat had a maximum capacity of carrying 60 to 70 passengers on board. "I don't know how many of us managed to swim ashore," he also quoted the man as saying.

The survivor said that the lower part of the overloaded boat was damaged and later it capsized in the Bay of the Bengal.

According to the officials, the illegal job aspirants started the journey on Oct. 27 heading for Malaysia. The boat anchored near the Shah Porir Island for a couple of days from where all the passengers were taken on aboard, they said.

Boat capsizal with illegal immigrants from Bangladesh is a recurring story, with Thailand, Malaysia and some other Southeast Asian countries being the destinations of illegal work seekers.

"We've always found some Rohingya Muslims there in a boat either capsized or being stopped on the way while going beyond Bangladesh sea territory illegally," Hasan said.

A pal of gloom, however, has descended over villages in Teknaf and Moheshkhali and Rohingya camps.

According to the Bangladeshi foreign minister, more than 28,000 registered refugees are currently staying at two camps in southeastern Bangladesh, and there are 300,000 to 500,000 illegal Rohingya immigrants throughout the country.

About 28,000 Rohingya Muslims at the latest have reportedly been displaced from Myanmar following violence erupted more than a week ago. In the incidents of violence at least 80 people have died and thousands of homes have been burnt down. Clashes with Buddhists in Rakhine in western Myanmar earlier this year also reportedly uprooted over 70,000 Rohingya.

Officials could not confirm whether the sunken boat comprised Rohingyas who were legally or illegally living in Bangladesh camps for a long time or those who entered Bangladesh recently after the fresh wave of violence.

In November 2007, a trawler and two boats sank off near Shah Parir Island in Teknaf sub-district as they were overloaded with an estimated 230 people on board. Their destination was also Malaysia.

Sources said there is a syndicate, comprising people from Bangladesh and neighboring Myanmar, who have long been involved in trafficking people from the country.

Bangladesh in 2009 brought home around 100 of its nationals rescued from a rickety boat in India's eastern sea coast in December 2008.

Some 300 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar were then missing and many of them feared dead off India's eastern sea coast after they jumped from rickety boats and tried to swim ashore. 

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