KARACHI, Sept 10: Ten fishermen drowned and 16 others were rescued by a fishing trawler in the early hours of Monday after their boat carrying 37 fishermen capsized off Ibrahim Hyderi during high tide on Sunday night.
The remaining 11 are feared to have drowned.
Tragedy befell Al-Rahman soon after it had sailed out from Ibrahim Hyderi at around 9pm on Sunday.
“The boat just overturned after we were hit by a huge wave. Some of us managed to swim away from the sudden vacuum caused by the capsizing but it pulled down many. My three brothers, Shakoor, Hussain and Hamidullah, were among those who drowned. Only my elder brother Ahmad and I survived when we were pulled out of the water by another fishing trawler that we swam to,” said Habibullah Bengali, one of five brothers on the boat, three of whom drowned, while speaking to Dawn.
“We are all fishermen… we are all strong swimmers. Don’t know how this happened. This is terrible,” he cried.
“The bodies of all my three brothers have been recovered and we are about to take them for burial now. You can’t even imagine the state of our family right now. Our father passed away many years ago but our mother is alive to endure this. She fainted when she learnt that three of her sons are gone and she is still unconscious. We don’t know if we should attend to her or the dead bodies,” he sobbed.
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum Media Coordinator Sami Memon said that the boat was carrying fishermen from Ibrahim Hyderi, Bengali Para and others from Khair Mohammad Khaskheli Goth. “This was the first time the people from Khaskheli Goth were on a boat after deciding to join the fishing profession in order to supplement their income,” he said.
“Four of their men drowned,” he said.
Information about the terrible accident reached the coastal village of Ibrahim Hyderi when the body of one local Bengali fisherman got caught in a fishing net and was brought to the shore. Then a large number of people sailed out with boats in search of the missing fishermen on a self-help basis.
Captain of the boat Ahmed and owner Umer said that there were 12 Bengalis among the 37 fishermen.
The accident took place soon after the boat entered the open sea from the Ibrahim Hyderi. Besides the brothers Habibullah and Ahmed, the rescued fishermen are Manzoor Alam, Mohammad Ali, Habibullah, Mohammad Hussain, Shafi Alam, Nazeer, Manzoor, Tahir, Sharif Khaskheli, Muqeem Khaskheli, Naseerullah Khaskheli, Azizullah Khaskheli, Nazeer Ahmed and Najeebullah Khaskheli, Juman Kaloi, Hussain Adam, Punhoon and the boat captain Ahmed.
Besides the three brothers who drowned, two more bodies of the fishermen were identified as Ismail and Bilal.