J&K: 6 dead as boat capsizes in Jhelum River
SRINAGAR: A boat carrying mostly school children capsized in the Jhelum river on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday, leaving six people dead, officials said. The incident took place around 8 am in Gandbal Nowgam area here and six people have been pulled out of the river whose water level had risen over the last couple of days due to incessant rains in the Kashmir valley.
The exact number of people on the boat was not clear. Deputy commissioner, Srinagar, Bilal Mohi-ud-Din Bhat, said six people have died and their bodies have been retrieved. “Six people have unfortunately died, while we have rescued six others -- out of which three are under treatment but stable. The rest three are at home,” Bhat told reporters. “The unfortunate incident occurred between 7:45 am and 8 am. We are ascertaining how many people were travelling in the boat, but the information we have so far is that 15 people were on it, including seven minors,” he said. The deputy commissioner said the rescue operations were on.
Asked if the administration had warned the people in view of an increase in the water levels of various rivers and streams in the valley, Bhat said the authorities had issued an alert on Monday asking people living near the embankments of the river to remain cautious.“We issued an alert yesterday. I was touring the city till around midnight. The danger level of Jhelum in Ram Munshibagh (in Srinagar) is 18 feet.
When the level crosses 10 feet, we issue an initial alert asking people living near the banks to remain cautious. (However), it was flowing below the danger level and the rain had also stopped around 10 pm last night,” he added.
In response to a question
whether the boat was overloaded, the deputy commissioner said, “We are looking into it”.
Senior officials from police and civil administration, including Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and Senior Superintendent of Police Srinagar, were at the spot at Gandbal Batwara monitoring rescue operations.