KOHAT: The survivors of the Tanda Dam boat tragedy describe how they managed to get to safety and how their fellow students drowned in front of their eyes desperately calling for help.

It is to mention here that a boat carrying students of a local seminary sank in the dam on Sunday morning. A total of 58 bodies have so far been retrieved from the dam, while one is still missing. Five students are reported to have been rescued.

A boy, Hamza of Tanda village, who is the lone brother of seven sisters, is still missing as a rescue operation to fish his body out continued for the fourth day on Wednesday.

One of the survivors of the horrific incident, Ameenullah, while describing his ordeal, told Dawn that there were no rescuers at the dam at the time of the tragedy. “The students made frantic efforts to get out of water, but drowned helplessly,” he said.

“I heard my fellow students screaming ‘Ameenullah please save us’, but I could do anything for them. I had to leave them behind with a heavy heart,” Ameenullah told Dawn from the intensive care unit of the KDA Teaching Hospital, where he is undergoing treatment.

He said when he felt he was also drowning he tore apart and removed a scarf around his neck, which was obstructing him from swimming. “Then I slowly swam to reach the lake’s bank,” he said, adding some anglers at the dam jumped into the lake and saved four other children.

He said the overcrowded boat had sunk after reaching the centre of the lake. Another rescued child, Mustafa, who is also in the hospital, told Dawn that soon after the boat overturned, he managed to come out from beneath it and made frantic efforts to reach the bank. “A hotel owner saved me after I had become unconscious due to severe cold.”

Meanwhile, provincial caretaker minister Khushdil Khan Malik, during a visit to Tanda Dam on Wednesday, said caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan had directed the formation of a committee for payment of compensation to the aggrieved families.

Talking to mediapersons on the occasion, he said guards, divers and experienced sailors would be hired to make the picnic spot safe for travellers.

The caretaker minister proposed setting up a regulatory authority to ensure availability of all the necessary facilities at the picnic spot and strict implementation of the relevant standard operating procedures.

He regretted that the untrained people served as sailors without caring for the precious lives of riders.

He said licences would be issued to sailors after undergoing training.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2023