Srinagar boat capsize tragedy: Six dead, 6 rescued, 3 still missing

Srinagar, Apr 16: Six people, including a 35-year-old mother and her two school-going sons, died when a boat capsized in the swollen Jhelum river, 5 km from the city centre of Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Tuesday morning.
Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Bilal Bhat said that there were fifteen persons on board at the time of the incident. He reported that six persons had died and six more had been saved. Among them three are currently undergoing treatment in a stable condition, while three have been discharged from the hospital.
SSP Srinagar city, Ashish Kumar Mishra, overseeing the rescue operation, stated that they deployed SDRF, NDRF, and Marcos personnel to locate the missing persons.
IGP Kashmir, Vidhi Kumar Birdi, stated that early this morning, the Ram Munshi Bagh Police Station received information that a boat ferrying 15 individuals had capsized in the locality. They swiftly responded and launched rescue operations. He mentioned that in the initial inquiry, it was discovered that 15 people were on board when the incident took place. Among them, six people were retrieved and six others were rescued.
Search operations are underway to locate the remaining three individuals. “We have also alerted the police stations located on the banks of the river Jehlum to keep an eye out for any bodies and to launch search operations to locate the missing bodies,” he added.
Meanwhile, the deceased have been identified as Shabir Ahmad Bhat, son of Bashir Ahmad Bhat; Razia, daughter of Ghulam Mohd Gojree; Gulzar Ahmad Dar, son of Mohd Jamal Dar; Firdousa, wife of Fayaz Ahmad Malik, all residents of Gandbal; Tanvir Fayaz, son of Fayaz Ahmad Malik; and Mudasir Fayaz, son of Fayaz Ahmad Malik, both residents of Shivpora.
As per officials, three persons, identified as Farhan Waseem, Hazik Showket, and Showket Ahmad Shikh, all residents of Gandbal, remain missing.
The Kashmir Valley has been receiving heavy rain since Saturday and the Jhelum river was in spate in the morning.
Despite the boat journey being only 500 meters between the localities, residents are forced to take the risk due to the nearest bridge being 3 kilometers away. A footbridge in the vicinity of the accident site has been under construction for almost ten years.
Locals believe that if the bridge construction had been completed, the accident could have been prevented, as boats are the primary mode of transportation for crossing the river.
Eyewitnesses said that the boat, which was tethered with a rope to a cable for support, got damaged when it hit an iron pillar in the river due to the heavy flow. The damage due to the impact of the crash led to its capsizing.
“Fifteen people, including schoolchildren, were in the boat when it capsized. While six people were rescued, six bodies were retrieved till the afternoon. A search is on for three missing persons,” Bhat said.
The six people rescued were rushed to the local Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, where three are admitted and three were discharged after first-aid.
Of the three missing, official sources said two are reported to be schoolchildren.
Eyewitnesses said that local residents were the initial first responders, but they were soon joined by rescue teams from the National Disaster Response Force, the State Disaster Response Force, and the police, all actively searching for the missing passengers.
Meanwhile, a Defence Spokesman Kashmir said that rescue teams of Chinar Corps are providing all possible assistance. A team of Marcos with specialised equipment was airlifted from Manasbal to the site of the tragic incident. Rescue operation along with SDRF and Jammu and Kashmir Police is underway, he said.
Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr. Bilal Mohiuddin told Rising Kashmir that rescue operation will continue throughout the night to enhance efforts in recovering the missing persons who drowned after a boat capsized in river Jhelum early Tuesday morning.
“We have installed lights at a major portion of the incident area. We have decided to continue with the ongoing rescue operation as the water flow is too heavy which may possibly wash down the drowned persons if we somehow are not able to trace them soon,” he said.
“Every possible effort is being made to locate the drowned persons and we hope that we are able to find them sooner than later,” DC added.
Scenes of beating chests, slapping foreheads, and wailing relatives and neighbours unfolded at the site, with many holding the previous regimes responsible for the incident. They lamented that had the bridge been completed, these precious lives could have been saved.
A grieving mother, who lost her son in the incident, said while wailing on the death of her beloved son, “Who will bring my son back? Who will ask me for lunch? Who will I call now, as he was the apple of my eyes?” She expressed anger over the government’s expenditure on the bridge project, highlighting that no amount of money could bring her son back.