Flood rescue boat capsizes, 11 dead in Pakistan

FE Team | Published: September 15, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

MULTAN, Sept 14 (AFP): At least eleven people including a bridegroom and two children drowned Sunday when a rescue boat carrying a wedding party capsized in central Pakistan, officials said, with the death toll feared to rise.
The boat went down in rough waters in the Muzaffargarh district of central Punjab province, they said.
Shaukat Ali, a senior government official told AFP: "Eleven people have died and 22 have been rescued. Rescuers are searching for more people missing in the water."
Ashiq Malik, medical superintendent of Nishtar Hospital, said: "Seven among the dead were members of the groom's family. The dead also included a military officer and two children."
It is not yet clear how many passengers were onboard but the majority are believed to have been members of a wedding party that had requested use of the rescue boat to take them to a Valima, an Islamic wedding reception to mark the consumation of a marriage.
Ali, the senior government official, said an enquiry had been ordered.
The floods and landslides from days of heavy monsoon rains have now claimed at least 480 lives in Pakistan and India.
Pakistan, which has suffered a series of annual flood disasters since 2010, says as many as 2.29 million people have been affected.
Meanwhile: Three paramilitary soldiers were killed when a group of militants launched a rocket attack on a mountain fort in Pakistan's troubled northwest early Sunday, security officials said.
The midnight attack took place in the Spinwam area of North Waziristan tribal district on the Afghan border, where the military launched a major offensive against the Taliban and other insurgents in June.
Officials said both military and paramilitary troops were inside the well-protected fort at the time.
"An unknown number of militants started firing rocket-propelled grenades from all sides. Three FC (Frontier Corps) men embraced martyrdom when one of the rockets landed inside the fort," an official in Peshawar said.