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| Boat capsized: Three bodies fished out, three more still missing | | | Baramulla:
Ten hours after a boat capsized in River Jehlum near village Zuhama, eight kilometers from here, joint teams of Army, J&K police and Naval divers managed to fish out only three bodies while three more remain missing.
Thousands of people, meanwhile, blocked the Baramulla-Handwara road to protest the 'inaction of the district administration'. As anger mounted among the people against the district administration, people alleged that civil administration could have saved a few lives had the search begun soon after capsize.
The boat, which capsized late Wednesday evening while carrying men back from work in orchards, was ferrying 13 persons when it collided with an abandoned Flood Control Department boat that was sometimes back used for river dredging riverbed. Seven among the passengers either swam to the shore or were rescued by locals.
However, the rescue operation that began late this morning could not locate and recover all the six missing passengers since the accident. Rescue team of Army's 5 Sector Rashtriya Rifles, led by Brigadier Bipin Rawat, was the first to reach the spot at 12:30 a.m. to look for the drowned. Till then, a local boatman had located the body of Ghulam Mohammad Dar of Ladoora village at 9 a.m. while thousands of people watched the valiant effort of the boatmen from the Jehlum bank.
As the body was brought to shore, cries of mourning started being whispered followed by slogans against the district administration as relatives carried Dar's body towards the village. "Had the administration tried to rescue them last night, may be some lives could have been saved. They fled at eleven leaving them to drown in the river," said a relative of Dar.
Soon the Baramulla-Handwara road was blocked by the protesters who shouted slogans against the local MLA, Mohammad Dilawar Mir and the District Administration. "We have been promised a bridge to Nagbal for years. The MLA does not mind to look back once the elections are over," said a protester.
Nagbal, a piece of 3,000 canals of orchard land that serves as the main source of livelihood for people of Ladoora and adjoining villages, is surrounded by water on three sides and boats are only means of transportation to access this place.
On Wednesday, when 13 persons were returning from work in nagbal orchards, the boat carrying them capsized and only seven drowning persons could be rescued in the dark by the locals. "I heard the Bachu cries of Abdul Ahad. When I went closer, two of his hands were rising above water. I jumped into the river and helped him reach the shore," said Abbas, a youth who was sitting 100 meters downstream from the spot of the accident.
Though seven people in all reached safety, search for the missing six that began this morning located the bodies of only three persons while the other three could not be located. The other two rescued till evening included Manzoor Ahmed Parray, 25, son of Abdul Hamid Parray, a resident of village Ladoora and Mohammad Zaman Khan of village Draman in Rafuiabad area of Baramulla district.
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