Rescue workers pull bodies of 19 more students from Tanda Dam lake
Rescue workers search for students who drowned in the waters of Tanda Dam after a boat they were on capsized in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. PHOTO: ONLINE
Rescue workers search for the victims drowned in the waters of Tanda Dam. PHOTO: ONLINE
Rescue teams on Monday have recovered another 19 bodies of seminary students who had drowned in the Tanda Dam lake, near Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.
This meant that the death toll from Sunday’s boat capsize has gone up to 30.
Rescue workers had pulled 11 bodies on Sunday and rescued 17 children alive from the lake.
Funeral prayers offered
Meanwhile, the funeral prayers of 11 students, whose bodies were fished out from the lake yesterday, were offered in Kohat on Monday.
The city’s administration has registered the case of the incident against boat owner and irrigation department.
The rescue service said that the search operation is still in progress to recover the bodies of the remaining students.
The boat had capsized on Sunday as students of a local seminary enjoyed a day trip at the lake, police officials said.
Police said that the students were between seven and 14 years of age while 11 children had been rescued from the water, with six in critical condition. The boat was carrying between 25 and 30 students during the trip.
Mass drownings are common in Pakistan, when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.
Many in the country do not know how to swim, particularly women who are discouraged from learning owing to conservative social mores. Their all-covering clothes also weigh them down once they become sodden.
In July, 18 women drowned when an overcrowded boat carrying a wedding party across the Indus river in Punjab province capsized.
boat capsize
