E-Paper
Blind mother, widower father mourn losses in Gandbal boat capsize tragedy
Elderly woman awaits update on her missing son and grandson; man loses wife, twin sons after boat capsizes in Jhelum in Gandbal, Jammu and Kashmir
Forty-five year old Firdousa Fayaz was accompanying her twin sons, Tahir Fayaz and Mudasir Fayaz, both seven, to their school in Batwara on the boat that on Tuesday capsized in the swollen Jhelum river.
The trio, residents of Gandbal, lost their lives in the mishap, while a father and his nine-year-old son remain missing.
The tragedy struck when the boat, tethered to an overhead cable, capsized after the rope holding it snapped.
Neighbours recall Firdousa, a doting mother, always chasing after her kids. “The mother and her two sons were together in death as well. She and her two sons were buried in a single grave,” said Adnan Ashraf, a Gandbal resident. “The father of the kids and husband of the woman has been left alone,” he added.
Six of the 15 people onboard the boat have lost their lives in the mishap, while three others, including the aforementioned father-son duo are still missing.
Besides Firdousa and her sons, the dead include Raziya, a Class 11 student of Kendra Vidyalaya School, the same school attended by Tahir and Mudasir, Shabir Ahmad Bhat, 34, a labour by profession and Gulzar Ahmad Dar, 40.
Search operations are underway to find the missing, Farhan Waseem Parray, a Class 2 student, Haziq Showkat Sheikh, a Class 3 student, and his father Showket Ahmad Sheikh.
The students’ bags were washed away onto the riverside and discovered by residents of Chattabal, around 8 km away from the place where tragedy struck.
Members of the Sheikh family were distraught as they were spotted sitting by the banks of Jhelum at Ganderbal waiting for an update from the rescue teams.
“I am blind. I walk with a stick. What will I do now? Where are you my beloved,” the elderly mother of Showkat Sheikh said.
Farhan’s mother, who was also on the boat and was rescued, was inconsolable.
“The boat was carrying less than the usual number of people today. Routinely more people traverse the river on the boat than today. When it reached the middle it hit the pillar and I lost my son whose hand was in my hand. It happened so fast that I did not understand what happened,” she said.
“I had called Firdousa in the morning saying the water was high, but she said we have seen higher waters,” she added.
Neck-deep in water: Survivors recount horrors
Survivors and eyewitnesses recounted the horrors of the tragedy that struck Gandbal on Tuesday. Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, who survived the mishap, said the boat was sailing smoothly when the rope of the boat tethered to an overhead cable, suddenly snapped. The river’s flow was fierce after three days of rains in the past three days and that possibly caused the malfunction.
“When we reached the middle, the rope snapped suddenly and it hit the iron pillar. The boat broke and it capsized,” he said. “I thought it was the end”.
Sheikh got entangled in the rope, which he grabbed to save himself. “Three among us clinged to the rope and the locals brought another boat and we were rescued. We also grabbed a woman who was also saved. Many school children, however, just disappeared before my eyes in the fast moving water.”
Sheikh said they held onto the capsizing boat until help arrived, neck-deep in water.
Notably, the iron pillar that the boat hit was part of the footbridge which was under construction over the river for the past nine years.
Doodnath, a resident of UP who was across the river when the boat capsized, said the impact of the boat with the iron pillar caused it to turn upside down.
“We raised an alarm and managed to rescue three people who were in the water,” he said.
Fayaz Ahmad, a resident of Gandbal, said the children were trying to cling to the pieces of the wood floating in the water but could not hold up. “The water was flowing very fast and it took them away till the time, another boat reached to the middle of the river,” he said.
Farhan’s mother, also on the boat, was inconsolable after being rescued. “The boat was carrying less than the usual number of people today. Routinely more people traverse the river on the boat than today. When it reached the middle it hit the pillar and I lost my son whose hand was in my hand. It happened so fast that I didn’t understand what happened,” she said. “I had called Firdousa in the morning saying the water is high but she said that we have seen more high waters.”
