Registration of Tarbela Lake boats declared mandatory
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HARIPUR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday declared registration of boats used for transportation of passengers and luggage or for picnic purpose in Tarbela Lake mandatory and asked the local administration to take steps ensuring that there was no overloading in the boats and each boat had life jackets for passengers and did not violate the load capacity parameters.
Read: Boat carrying 50 capsizes in Indus River near Haripur; at least 14 survive
He issued the directives during his visit to the medical and facilitation camp near Padhana village on Tarbela Lake’s bank that the district administration has set up after a boat sank in the lake on Wednesday.
In the incident, over 40 persons drowned of whom nine survived by swimming to the shore.
Bodies of four small children were later found floating on the surface of the huge lake.
Talking to media persons, the CM said the administration was busy compiling the data about the victims.
About delays in recovering the bodies of the victims, he said the rescue teams were trying to recover the bodies and also those passengers who might still be alive, but heavy flow of water, depth of the lake and accumulation of mud and silt at its bed were the main obstacles.
The CM announced Rs500,000 compensation for the family of each victim and Rs100,000 for each survivor.
Meanwhile, rescue workers from Pakistan Army and Rescue 1122 and local divers continued their operation but failed to find even a single body.
According to Nasrullah, one of the survivors, five members of same family belonging to Torghar district had lost their lives. He identified the victims as Gul Badan, his wife Rabia Bibi, their daughter Aiman, 12, and sons Wasim, 7, and Adil. The body of Adil has been recovered.
One of the missing passengers was a schoolteacher of Kaneeri village, who had made a video of the overloaded boat a few moments before it capsized. He shared the footage live with his friends through social media and the video became viral after the incident.
Those feared dead, according to family sources, included Zahir, Bakht Abbas, his brother Hafiz, Ghafar Ullah, Yasmin Bibi, Habibur Rehman and Mohammad Saeed.
According to Jan Alam one of the survivors, along with 40 to 50 passengers, the greedy boatman had also loaded six bulls and 27 goats that were being taken to a market for sale as sacrificial animals.
Sharing his eyewitness account, he said when the boat was passing through the Chandni Chowk point where water always remained in a storm-like condition, the boat capsized and sank.
About how he swam ashore, Mr Alam said he got hold of a goat that protected him from drowning.
Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2019
