All 130 passengers stranded after a boat ran aground near Tarbela Dam in Haripur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hazara Division, were safely rescued, according to the district’s deputy commissioner.
Haripur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Shauzab Abbas confirmed, “All passengers have been successfully rescued.”
Earlier in the day, DC Abbas had announced that a rescue operation was underway to bring the stranded passengers to safety, while food and supplies were being provided to them. “The operation began at 2 pm and was completed before sunset,” he added.
The rescue operation involved a Rescue 1122 team and a revenue official, and was supervised by Haripur Assistant Commissioner Mohammad Hamza Abbas.
The DC indicated that the likely cause of the incident was overloading. He stated that boat owners and operators had been clearly instructed to adhere to regulations to prevent such incidents. The boat, which had a maximum capacity of 70 passengers, was carrying nearly double that number.
The boat operator and his assistant were taken into custody, and DC Abbas vowed that strict legal action would be taken against them and other violators. He also promised that action would be taken against the boat’s owner.
This incident recalls a similar tragedy on July 3, 2019, when a boat capsized in Haripur’s Tarbela Lake, killing at least 38 people. While four bodies were recovered that day, 18 passengers remained missing for over a year. In March 2021, four bodies were discovered in the lake, though officials have not confirmed whether they were from the missing individuals.
In response to the 2019 incident, the KP government made the registration of passenger and cargo boats on Tarbela Lake mandatory and ordered local authorities to ensure that boats adhered to load capacity regulations.
