Nine people had gone to the Brahmaputra river bank in Kharghuli locality of Guwahati on Wednesday
Rescue operations are underway for the second day at the Brahmaputra in Guwahati in search of the five persons who were swept away by strong water current after they entered the river for a swim at the Kharghuli riverbank on Wednesday (Dec 10) afternoon.
NDRF and SDRF divers who resumed their search operation today morning to rescue the five persons although chances of anyone of them surviving appear slim.
WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY?
A group of nine persons, including an American national and two Australian nationals of Indian origin who had come to visit the Bhakti Kutir — the Krishna temple situated at the Kharguli hills — had ventured towards the Brahmaputra river banks to have a bath, an NDRF official told News Live.
Three of them ventured out to the river waters since they were good swimmers.
However, after crossing a stretch of the river, they reached a sand bar and signaled to their friends on the opposite bank to not take to the waters since it was quite deep in the middle and the river current was also quite strong, the official further said.
However, the other group took the warning lightly and stepped into the water.
Minutes later, the six of them were caught in the strong water current and were swept away by the strong water currents.
While one of them managed to swim ashore, the rest five were swept away, the official added.
While three of the four persons who could swim back safely have been identified as American national Jacob Knutsen, Pranav Nair and Keshav Verma, the missing persons are Upesh Kumar (43) and Pratap Rai (18) of Biswanath Chariali, Sagar Gautam of Gurugram, Ronak Chadak of Bongaigaon and Abhijeet (20) of Uzan Bazar, Guwahati.
ENDLESS WAIT FOR FAMILY MEMBERS
Meanwhile, family members of the missing persons arrived at the river bank, waiting for news about their loved ones as search teams continued efforts to rescue them or, in the worst case, fish out the bodies from the river.
“He had come to Bhakti Kutir on Monday and stayed there till yesterday. He along with the others then reportedly came to the riverbank yesterday morning. While four members of the group which had nine people survived, five persons including my brother are still missing,” Upesh Kumar’s elder brother, who came from Biswanath Chariali after learning about the tragic incident, told News Live.
FAMILIES CRY FOUL
Upesh Kumar’s elder brother, meanwhile, questioned why the four people who could swim ashore after taking to the waters were not present while the search operations were taking place and also whether they were questioned by police.
“There were nine persons in all and four were either rescued or they were able to swim to safety. But the bigger question remains as to why they are not present here and isn’t it their moral duty to show the search teams where the incident exactly took place,” he said.
“We, therefore, have strong grounds to suspect that it is a planned murder,” he added.
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