Six schoolchildren perish in a boat accident near Srinagar

Around 7.45 am on Tuesday, a boat carrying largely kids sank in the Jhelum river near Gandbal, on the outskirts of the city, killing six people, including two brothers and their mother. Authorities claimed that three people were missing, including a father-son pair.

Ten of the 19 people aboard the boat—including members of the SDRF, Jammu and Kashmir Police, and other agencies—were reportedly saved during the operation.

According to a local, he was informed of the incident by his wife, who was on the riverside. “I sped up my boat to get to the victims.” I help a mom who is holding her two daughters. I looked for others too, but I couldn’t find any,” he said. Farhan Waseem Parray, seven years old, is one of the missing. Masarat Begum, his mother, lived.

Gulzar Ahmad Dar, the boatman, too, passed away, leaving his wife and three children in his wake. Both of Fayaz Ahmad Malik’s sons and his wife, Firdousa have passed away. The kids were traveling over the river to their school in the Batwara neighborhood.

Locals lamented that despite the bridge’s approval in 2017, construction on the Gandbal-Batwara was delayed. Residents said that “no one would have died here today if it had been finished on time.”