SYEDWALA: At least six people, including a woman and three children, are feared dead after a ferry carrying more than 100 passengers capsized in Ravi River between Nankana Sahib and Okara near Syedwala Bridge on Friday. According to details, rescue teams from Okara and Nankana districts rushed to the site soon after being informed and started rescuing the survivors, besides searching for the bodies. According to a private news channel, the ferry sailed at noon from Nankana’s Syedwala tehsil to Okara with more than 100 people aboard.
It capsized shortly after leaving Syedwala, enabling the district administration and rescue teams to reach the spot on time. Rescue 1122 and police sources said that six people – Rang Elahi and his wife Balqees Begum of Bara Ghar, a four-year-old girl Muqaddas and Muhammad Riaz of Chah Hajiwala along with his two siblings – were still missing. According to some reports, at leas 35 motorcycles were also loaded onto the ferry that capsized. “The ferry was overloaded with passengers,” Deputy Commissioner Saira Umar said, adding that a majority of the people swam to the bank on their own, while rescue teams saved eight others, who were shifted to a hospital. She said the rescue operation would continue until the recovery of all the people. Meanwhile, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa ordered the launch of a special search operation for the victims of the capsized boat. Following the directives, a team of Pakistan Army divers was dispatched to the site of incident to facilitate search efforts.
