VEHARI, Aug 3: Twenty people were feared drowned when a Mailsi-bound wagon (STD-3090) fell into the Thingi Canal while attempting to overtake another wagon, some 25km from here, on Saturday.

Some of those feared dead were identified as Abdul Rasheed, Khuda Bakhsh and Shamim (Mailsi); Imtiaz Khan, Riaz Ahmed, Yasir Bukhari and Jafar Bukhari (Vehari) and Ghulam Ahmed Din of Dakota.

Driver Mushtaq Ahmed, Mohammad Amin, Haji Mohammad Hussain, Mohammad Shafi Machi, Liaquat Ali Dakoia and Ghulam Qadir were rescued.

Talking to newsmen, Ghulam Qadir said that 26 people were on board. He said his wife Hanifan, daughters Ramsha and Shehnaz, son Zakir Ali and nephew Mulazim Hussain were among the dead.

The identity of the seven missing passengers could not be established.

The canal was flowing to the capacity, but the irrigation department stopped the water after the accident.

Ten bodies were fished out of the canal and sent to the THQ hospital in Mailsi till the filing of this report.

Agencies add: Dr Irshad Hussain at the Mailsi Tehsil Headquarters hospital told APP that the civil administration of Vehari and Mailsi had sought army’s help and added that a military crane had been sent to retrieve the bodies. Army divers were also engaged in the operation, he said.

The police said that they had requested the Mailsi Syphon engineering staff to install a net so that no dead body could pass through the syphon.

“Army divers have traced the wagon and an army team is now trying to bring the wagon out with the help of a crane,” Syed Javed Hussain Shah, Vehari town’s superintendent of police, told Reuters.