Kohistan bridge collapse: Divers unable to retrieve bodies

MANSEHRA: The divers couldn’t find even a single body of the 16 missing people during the last almost 48 hours as the fast-moving water in Kandia stream is hampering the search operation.

“Though a highly trained team of Rescue 1122 from Peshawar also joined the divers to fish out the remaining 16 bodies, the strong currents in the stream are hampering the search operation,” Hamidur Rehman, the deputy commissioner of Upper Kohistan, told reporters. He said the bodies had probably got stuck under heavy rocks in the stream. As many as 24 people, including nine women, drowned when a pickup vehicle carrying members of a wedding party plunged into a stream after a suspension bridge collapsed in Kandia last Friday night.

The bodies of eight people were pulled out from the stream on the second day of the incident by locals but there has been no headway in operation during the last two days. Chief Minister Mahmood Khan visited Kandia on Sunday and announced Rs0.5 million compensation for the family of each victim. “We joined the search operation in the morning which is still underway,” Dr Khatir Ahmad, the director-general of the Rescue 1122, told reporters.