Seven persons belonging to Tableeghi Jamaat, the roaming preachers, drowned in a waterway in Thatta district on Monday while three others were rescued.
According to the police, a rickshaw carrying 10 people fell in the KDA Gujjo Canal near the shrine of Makhdoom Essa.
Women fetching water saw the rickshaw fall in the canal and cried for help on which local divers rushed to the spot and managed to save three men, Ali Gul Khan, Muhammad Naseer and Abde Ali.
However, before the evening five bodies of the deceased persons were pulled out and one after the sunset. Three of the deceased persons have been identified as Ameer Muzamil Shah, Gul Rehman Khan and Gohar Khan, all residents of Peshawar. The other four deceased persons including Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Asif Khan, Maqbool Ahmed and Ghulam Rasool belonged to Dhabeji, Thatta.
The police said the deceased were taking one of their sick associates to a health facility in Gharo when the incident happened.
The local divers, who were drawn to the site of the incident by the women's shouts, pulled out bodies of Asif and Rehman minutes after the incident.
However, it took several teams of divers to recover three other bodies in three hours.
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The bodies of Shah, who is said to be Ameer of his Jamaat in Peshawar, and Ghulam Rasool could not be found before sunset but a team of divers pulled out Shah's body in the evening.
The group was staying in village Ali Asghar Shah. The people complained that the local authorities responded late to the situation. Moulana Ahmed Soomro of Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam warned the administration of blocking the highway if professional divers are not sent to retrieve the bodies.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 24th, 2022.
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