Abdullah Hil Rakib, Firmer VP of BGMEA and Managing Director of Team Group and a prominent figure in Bangladesh’s garment and textile industry, has tragically passed away in a boating accident in Canada.
Mohuddin Rubel, additional managing director of Denim Expert and also former BGMEA director confirmed the death of Abdullah Hil Rakib today at 7 am in the morning.
The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon (June 8) at Sturgeon Lake in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario, approximately 155 kilometers northeast of Toronto.
According to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), a canoe carrying three men capsized shortly after 3 p.m. One of the individuals managed to swim to shore, but the other two, including Abdullah Hil Rakib, could not stay afloat and tragically drowned.
Authorities confirmed that no life jackets were present on the boat, which significantly contributed to the loss of life. The OPP’s Marine Unit, Aviation Team, along with local fire and EMS services, responded swiftly in the rescue and recovery efforts.
“Capsizing and falling overboard are leading causes of boating fatalities each year. A significant number of lives could be saved if all boaters, personal watercraft users, and paddlers wore a lifejacket or personal flotation device,” said the OPP, which patrols over 110,000 square kilometers of Ontario’s waterways.
Abdullah Hil Rakib was a respected leader in Bangladesh’s business community. His untimely death has cast a shadow of mourning across the nation’s industrial and corporate sectors.
Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.
