Pakistan: Boat carrying wedding party capsizes; 21 dead
Pakistani rescuers Tuesday resumed a search for 29 people who went missing after a passenger boat carrying nearly 100 members of a wedding party capsized in the fast-flowing Indus river.
The incident happened in the Sadiqabad district, about 350 kilometers (210 miles) south of Multan, a main city in Punjab, a senior government official said.
Saleem Assi said at least 65 people, including the bridegroom, were rescued and nearly two dozen people, including children, were still missing.
Assi said the cause of the accident was not immediately known, but apparently the boat was overcrowded.
Twenty-one women and children were killed in the disaster a day earlier, a senior government official said.
Divers from Pakistan’s army were expected to join the rescue operation in Sadiqabad, a district in the eastern Punjab province, government official Saleem Assi said.
He said the bodies of 21 people had so far been recovered and handed over to their relatives.
Assi said at least 65 people, including the bridegroom, were rescued on Monday, but 29 people, including children, were still missing. The missing passengers are feared dead.
Their relatives are still waiting hopefully along the riverbank to witness the rescue operation.
Assi said at least 90 people were on board the boat when the boat capsized.
