MULTAN: At least 17 people, including a bridegroom, drowned when a boat carrying a wedding party capsized in the flooded Chenab near the Sher Shah Bridge on Sunday.

The bridal party of Mohammad Zahid of Muzaffarabad town near Multan had gone to Sankiwala in Muzaffargarh a couple of days ago.

When the party was returning along with the bride, they had to board boats because the road link between Multan and Muzaffargarh had been severed by flood.

According to rescue sour­ces, 30 people boarded a fibre boat. When the boat was in the middle of the swollen river, a relief helicopter passed overhead and almost all the people on the boat started looking up, which created an imbalance and the boat started tilting and sank.

Rescue workers retrieved the bodies of 17 people, including the groom, Shakir, Fauzia, Shahid Iqbal, Asif, Ali Abbas, Shahida, Akbar, Shan, Khadim Hussain and Inab Gul, while the bride and six other people were rescued and admitted to a hospital.

According to ISPR, Inab Gul was a Naib Subedar who died during the rescue operation.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who was briefed on the accident by Commissioner Asadullah Khan, ordered the speeding up of the rescue operation.

Most of the people who drowned were guests from Sukkur and Shikarpur.

In another accident, two people drowned in floodwaters in Khanpur Qazian, near Shujabad.

Published in Dawn, September 15th , 2014