In this Sept. 28, 2017 file photo, a rescue worker places the body of a Rohingya Muslim boy, who died after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal as they were crossing over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, onto a stretcher near Inani beach, in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh. Of the 80 refugees believed to have been on the boat, only 24 are known to have survived. Police collected 23 corpses from the shore. The rest, mostly children, are missing and presumed to have drowned. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)
The Associated Press
INANI BEACH, Bangladesh (AP) - Across the churning black water of the ocean, Alam Jafar could see his frantic seven-year-old son gasping for breath. The boy was crying out louder than he ever had in his life - he did not know how to swim.
"Papa! Papa! Help Me!"
Just moments before, Jafar and his family had huddled together in a small fishing boat filled with refugees from Myanmar bound for Bangladesh. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War - more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing Buddhist mobs and soldiers.
What happened next, just 1,000 feet from shore, would take the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. Through interviews with more than a dozen survivors, The Associated Press has reconstructed their ill-fated journey late last month.
A few months ago, in response to Rohingya insurgent attacks in Myanmar, mobs backed by security forces began setting entire Rohingya villages ablaze. In September, Jafar, a 25-year-old farmer, woke to gunfire and screams. Outside, flames were rising in the distance. Whole families had begun fleeing.
"How can we just leave everything behind?" his wife Tayiba Khatun asked, in tears.
"We have no choice," Jafar whispered. "Our belongings are not going to save our lives."
They and their three children, including newborn twins, joined an endless stream of families leaving the village. They hiked for two days until they finally reached the coast. Thousands of refugees were already camped on the beach.
When a dozen fishing boats from Bangladesh suddenly appeared, Jafar and his family jumped to their feet.
A boatman counted off about 80 people, including as many as 50 children, and let them on board. The boat pulled away to cross the Naf River to Bangladesh.
One hour passed. Then two.
Over the next few hours, the weather grew steadily worse. They had strayed far off course, deep into the ocean.
"We're lost," the boatman said, staring ahead into the night.
The refugees began praying. Jafar could hear his wife weeping.
After a few hours, someone spotted the twinkling lights of a large ship in the distance. They waved scarves above their heads and shouted.
Thirty minutes later, the lights had faded away.
At dawn, a new feeling of dread set in. All they could see was water.
Jafar's wife turned angrily to her husband, fighting back tears again.
"How could you do this to us? Why?" she said.
Soon, the boatmen announced that the boat was dangerously overloaded. They hurled the small bags and bottles the refugees held overboard.
In whispers, Jafar and his wife began to discuss the unthinkable.
"Please forgive me," Khatun said, "if I ever did anything wrong to you."
As the boat rocked endlessly back and forth, they drifted in and out of sleep. And then they were startled to hear one of the boatmen yelling.
"It's there! It's there!"
Jafar thought he was dreaming. But when he lifted his cramped body up, he saw the top of a green hill peeking out of white clouds on a coast.
"Oh, blessed Allah, he knows where we are," Khatun said.
As the boat motored toward the shore, though, the wind began to pick up again. The sky darkened. Torrential sheets of rain began to fall.
And then, somewhere around 3:30 p.m., the engine died.
Without power, the boat was at the mercy of the waves. A giant wave suddenly thrust the boat upside down. It threw Jafar into the surging ocean with the twins, wrapped around his chest in a longyi.
He could barely see, but he spotted his wife, and his son. He heard Mohamed crying out.
"Papa! Papa! Help Me!"
"Papaaaaaa!"
Then the second wave crashed down. He lost sight of them.
For half an hour, Jafar struggled to swim on his back in the current. But the waves and the weight of the twins kept pushing him down. He didn't know if they were dead.
He was exhausted. When he realized he would drown if he held on to them any longer, he untied the longyi, and let go.
By the time he crawled onto the beach and collapsed, it was twilight.
"Where am I?" Jafar asked a stranger weakly.
"Brother," the man said. "You are in Bangladesh."
On the beach, Jafar searched desperately for Khatun and Mohamed and the twins.
When he found their bodies, laid out on the sand by rescue crews, he broke down and wept.
Of the 80 refugees believed to have been on the boat on Sept. 28, only 24 are known to have survived.
Police collected 23 corpses from the shore. The rest - mostly children - are missing and presumed to have drowned. They are among at least 184 Royingya on 28 capsized boats who have died trying to make the crossing to Bangladesh since August.
Jafar can't stop thinking about what happened.
"Why did I bring my children here and let them die in the water?" he asks. "Wouldn't it have been nice if I, too, had died?"
The mass grave where his wife and children are buried is not far away.
There are no names. Just a trio of palm fronds stuck in the dirt.
___
Associated Press journalists Rishabh R. Jain and Yasin Dar contributed to this story.
In this Sept. 28, 2017 file photo, policemen and rescue workers carry the body of a Rohingya Muslim, who died after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal as they were crossing over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, near Inani beach, in Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh. Of the 80 refugees believed to have been on the boat, only 24 are known to have survived. Police collected 23 corpses from the shore. The rest, mostly children, are missing and presumed to have drowned. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 30, 2017 photo a fisherman adjusts his waist floats near the site where a boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsized on Sept. 28 at Inani beach, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
This Oct. 30, 2017, photo shows a portion of a small fishing boat that capsized while it was bound for Bangladesh, filled with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on Sept. 28, 2017, on Inani beach in Cox's bazar, Bangladesh. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Sept. 30, 2017, photo tears roll down the cheeks of Rohingya man Alam Jafar as he recounts the story of his journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh, at a transit shelter at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In Myanmar, the 25-year-old farmer owned a verdant rice field, a boat that ferried passengers up and down the river and lived in a four-room house made of wood and bamboo surrounded by coconut and mango trees. When the mob came to his village on Sept. 25, Jafar had no choice but to flee with his wife and three children. The boat they were traveling on capsized on Sept. 28 and left him as the sole survivor in a family of 5. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 1, 2017, photo Rohingya man Alam Jafar, second right, stands with other Rohingya refugees at a transit shelter at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. In Myanmar, the 25-year-old farmer owned a verdant rice field, a boat that ferried passengers up and down the river and lived in a four-room house made of wood and bamboo surrounded by coconut and mango trees. When the mob came to his village on Sept. 25, Jafar had no choice but to flee with his wife and three children. On Sept. 28, the small fishing boat they were traveling in capsized while it was bound for Bangladesh and left him as the sole survivor of the family of 5. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 1, 2017, photo, forty-year old Mohammad Kasim, from Moidaung Village in Myanmar, weeps at a transit shelter at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Kasim's wife and two daughters drowned when the fishing boat they were traveling in capsized on Sept. 28, 2017. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 1, 2017, photo, a Rohingya Muslim woman Malika, mourns as she is reunited with her daughter Nur Kaisha, foreground, and others who survived a boat capsize on Sept. 28, at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Of the 80 refugees believed to have been on the fishing boat, carrying Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar, only 24 are known to have survived. Three of her children, aged six-months to six-years, drowned in the accident. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Sept. 30, 2017 photo, Rohingya survivors of a boat capsize, Sona Mia, center, and Lalo Mia, right, sit in a room to meet administration officers at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Lalo's wife, a son and a daughter drowned when the fishing boat they were traveling in while fleeing from Myanmar capsized on Sept. 28. Of the 80 refugees believed to have been on that boat, only 24 are known to have survived. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Sept. 30, 2017, photo, Rohingya refugee survivors of a Sept. 28 boat capsize walk in a group to a registration center at Kutupalong camp for newly arrived Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 1, 2017, photo, palm fronds stand in the dirt at a mass grave where Rohingya refugee victims of a Sept. 28 boat capsize lay buried in Ghunarmur Shikderpara, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. The mass grave lies in a clearing in a small coastal village lined with coconut trees and rice paddies. There are no names. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 30, 2017, photo, Ahamed Hossain, an eye witness and a first-responder of a Sept. 28 boat capsize that killed Rohingya refugees, walks towards a portion of what remains of the wooden boat at Inani beach in Cox's bazar, Bangladesh. The boat capsized just 1,000 feet (300 meters) from shore, taking the lives of at least 50 people, most of them children, in the deadliest tragedy of its kind since the crisis exploded in late August. They were part of the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War, a colossal tide of more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims whose homes had been torched by Buddhist mobs and soldiers. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)
The Associated Press
In this Oct. 19, 2017, photo, a Rohingya Muslim man Alam Jafar, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, sits for a photograph outside his shelter in Thaingkhali refugee camp, Bangladesh, Cox's Bazar. In Myanmar, the 25-year-old farmer owned a verdant rice field, a boat that ferried passengers up and down the river and lived in a four-room house made of wood and bamboo surrounded by coconut and mango trees. When the mob came to his village on Sept. 25, Jafar had no choice but to flee with his wife and three children. On Sept. 28, the small fishing boat they were traveling in capsized while it was bound for Bangladesh and left him as the sole survivor of the family of 5. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
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