No trace of 2 missing in Hoshiarpur tragedy

A team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the local police continued its search on the second day but was without success till evening. A dog squad was also pressed into service.

There is no trace of the two persons who went missing after their car was swept away by the floodwaters in Jaijon rivulet in Garhshankar tehsil of Hoshiarpur district on Sunday. The bodies of nine others travelling with them have already been retrieved.

The Innova that got swept away in flooded rivulet in Hoshiarpur’s Jaijon killing at least nine occupants. (HT File)

A team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the local police continued its search on the second day but was without success till evening. A dog squad was also pressed into service.

Garhshankar sub-divisional magistrate Shiv Raj Singh Bal said the bodies of nine victims were recovered from as far as three kilometres downstream so the search operation was carried out in farther areas but the efforts remained futile.” He said the hunt would continue on Tuesday.

The nine bodies recovered on Sunday were handed over to the kin after their post-mortem examination at the civil hospital here. Jaijon police post in-charge Manpreet Manna said the bodies of Sarup Chand and Surinder Kaur were missing. Surinder’s three children and Sarup Chand’s wife have died in the mishap.

Twelve members of the two families of Dehlan and Bhatoli villages of Himachal Pardesh’s Una district were on their way to Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar to attend a wedding when their SUV was swept away in the flooded rivulet.