Five students rescued as Pakistan Army rescue efforts continue at Tanda Dam,

RAWALPINDI  – The rescue and relief operation of the Pakistan Army was underway at Tanda Dam on Tuesday as the troops along with Rescue 1122 and civil administration were working constantly day and night to search for one missing person amid casualties rising to 51.

Meanwhile, five students were recovered alive in the process.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations’ (ISPR), after 72 hours of effort, the army rescued five students alive from Tanda Dam, while Pakistan Army’s engineers and divers of the Special Services Group (SSG) recovered 51 deceased students and teachers from the said location.

The rescued students have been shifted to District Hospital Kohat, while the search for one missing individual is ongoing, the military’s media wing stated.

The children and teachers drowned when their overloaded boat capsized in the lake, police said, after divers spent three days dragging bodies from freezing waters.

The boys aged between seven and 14 were all students of a madrassah and had been taken for a day trip to the scenic popular weekend tourist destination on Sunday.

“The water of the dam was freezing due to cold weather that impeded the rescue mission. But today the divers were able to dive deep to recover the remaining bodies,” said Khateer Ahmad, a senior official with Rescue 1122.

The bodies of a teacher and one skipper were also pulled from the water, he added, bringing the death toll to 51.

Muhammad Umar, who sells tea at a picnic site overlooking the lake, said dozens of parents and relatives had gathered over the past few days.

“Every time a body was recovered from the scene, they would jump onto the diver to see if it was their son and every time we would hear them screaming in pain and anguish,” he told AFP over the phone on Tuesday.

“I have not witnessed such scenes in my life, it’s something that can’t be explained in words.”

Tanda Dam lake is about five kilometres (3 miles) away from the madrassah — an Islamic school that offers free religious education — in Kohat.

“The boat was overloaded; its capacity was around 20 to 25 persons,” police spokesperson Fazal Naeem told AFP.

He added that five people were rescued including four students and one teacher.

“I got stuck under the boat,” 11-year-old survivor Muhammad Mustafa told AFP from his hospital bed on Sunday.

“My shawl and sweater weighed me down, so I took them off.”

“The water was extremely cold and my body went numb. I thought I was going to pass out when a man on an inflatable tube saved me.”

Drownings are common in Pakistan, when aged and overloaded vessels lose their stability and pitch passengers into the water.

In July last year, at least 18 women drowned after an overloaded boat carrying about 100 members of the same family capsized during a marriage procession between two villages.