Local divers on Sunday fished out six bodies - including a woman and child - who drowned after their boat capsized in a lake in Umerkot district of Tharparkar.
A teen boatman had rescued four others on Sunday, when the incident took place.
They were going to visit a shrine located on the other side of the Kalankar Lake. The bodies of the six victims were shifted and transferred them to the hospital.
Locals said that the accident took place because the boat was ferrying more passengers than its capacity.
A large number of locals gathered at the site of the incident soon after it was reported. However, government officials and political representative failed to visit the aggrieved families.
Boat accidents are common due to overloading in ramshackle crafts. There is no concept of life jackets for boat travelers.
In August 2022, at least 17 people, including six women and three children, drowned in the Indus River as a boat carrying 25 flood-affected people capsized near Sehwan in Jamshoro.
The local people had blamed the boatman for carrying passengers beyond the boat's capacity. "The greedy boatman overcrowded the boat with 25 persons so that he could make more money," Muhammad Rahupoto, who claimed that his relatives were on the boat, had told the media persons.
In July 2022 at least 50 people had drowned when one of the two boats carrying a wedding party drowned in Indus River in Rahimyar Khan district of Punjab which borders with Sindh. The planks of the boat carrying mostly women and children had come apart midstream sending the passengers to the depth of Indus which was in full flood after rains.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 21st, 2023.
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