Srinagar- A pall of despair hangs heavy over Gandbal, Srinagar. Ten agonizing days have passed since a boat tragedy on the Jhelum River claimed the lives of six and left three missing – a father and son duo, and another young boy.
Locals from the area continue to request the authorities to deploy deep divers and Navy’s marine commandos to search.
An official present at the spot said that the ongoing rescue operation to retrieve the missing individuals, Showkat Ahmad, his son Haziq Showkat, another minor boy, and Farhan Parray, continued on the 10th day, with the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) continuing with the rescue operations in Gandbal.
“We are continuously searching the waters near Batwara—Gandbal to Rajbagh, and also near Chattabal Veer, but nothing has been spotted yet. Our teams are actively searching the Jhelum, but on the 10th day, no one has been retrieved yet,” ASI SDRF Abdul Rashid said.
“We have checked near the shores close to the bridge and all the possible spots where chances of the body being spotted,” he added.
Meanwhile, locals from Gandbal remain hopeful for a swift resolution, while they continue to urge the administration to deploy deep divers and Navy’s marine commandos into the waters of Jhelum to trace the missing persons.
The locals from the area staged a protest near Gandbal – Lasjan road here, requesting the administration to deploy sophisticated machinery and deep divers to trace our missing in Gandbal, Srinagar.
“The only thing we want is the missing bodies of the father-son duo and the minor student who left all of us, and we want nothing but their missing dead bodies,” says the locals from Gandbal while being today on the road as they were on protests against the administration.
Pertinently, on April 16, a pall of gloom descended throughout Kashmir after a boat ferrying 15 people capsized in the River Jhelum at Gandbal, leaving six persons dead while three persons, including a father-son duo and another minor boy, remained missing on the 6th day.
Local women from Gandbal said,” we are here on the road as there are no traces of the missing three persons on the 10th day. We know the SDRF has been searching tirelessly for the past 10 days, but they too are helpless and are searching on top of the water.”
Among the protesters was the mother of Showkat Ahmad, who continues to wait for his son’s and grandson Hasik Showkat’s missing bodies.
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