Lives lost: Six members of a family drown while fishing

Two victims got stuck in a broken net, others drowned trying to rescue the former.

KARACHI: Six members of a family, including four young brothers, who drowned in an unfortunate incident in the sea near Port Qasim, were laid to rest on Sunday.

Police officials and rescuers said that the tragic incident occurred when the victims were fishing on the second day of Eidul Fitr on Saturday. The victims were aged between 20 and 40 years.

The four brothers, Noor Mohammad, 40, son of Sultan Mohammad and his three younger brothers, Mohammad Noor, 38, Zubair, 35 and Tahir,  along with Noor Mohammad’s 20-year-old son, Salam and his brother-in-law, Inayat, 35, had gone fishing in the sea near Bin Qasim.



Their bodies were found floating in the deep sea by divers of Port Qasim and different welfare organisations including Edhi and Chippa. They were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre from where their relatives took them away without legal formalities.

According to police officials, the incident occurred at around 6:30pm when they were fixing a net to catch fish near the Thermal Power Project near Bin Qasim. “As they were trying to catch the fish, their net’s rope broke,” Bin Qasim SHO Huzoor Buksh Solangi told The Express Tribune. “At first, two of them got stuck in the net. When the other four dove into the sea to attempt to rescue the former, the strong current pushed them towards deeper water where they too, drowned.”

The victims were fishermen by profession and lived in Usman Town, Korangi 100 Quarters. Scenes of despair and grief were seen throughout the neighbourhood as the bodies were brought to their homes.

All routine and commercial activities were suspended to express solidarity with the families of the victims. SHO Solangi said that no case was registered, as according to the initial investigation, the incident was an accident. The family also refused to register a case.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 12^th, 2013.