'Joyride turns last journey for our children'

Handwara (North Kashmir), May 31: Little did Shamima know that it would be the last time she is seeing her teenaged daughters who boarded the bus yesterday for an excursion to the Wullar lake.

Twenty-one children and a teacher drowned when a Navy motorboat capsized in the middle of the lake yesterday.

''We still do not believe that our children are no more as we saw them off near the school when they boarded the bus for excursion to Watlab,'' said a tearful Shamima and other parents who lost their children in the tragedy.

Shamima said her daughters Suriya and Samreena were very excited about visiting Watlab and Wullar Lake. ''They were preparing for the excursion for the past three days,'' she said.

''I prepared meat and rice for them, little knowing that this would be the last feast for them,'' she added.

The joyride was the last journey for them, she said cursing herself for allowing them to join the excursion. ''I would have refused permission to them for going to the excursion but it was compulsory for all the students,'' she said.

The students had paid Rs 40 each to the school management for arranging transport.

''My brother's son was just a seven-year old. He did not know swimming,'' said one Abdul Rashid. ''Nobody has had meal or even a drop of water in the village ever since the news about the tragedy poured in,'' he added.

''Since we are Muslims we believe in destiny. God had given us brains to decided between good and bad,'' said the parents of the victims.

They said though the Navy officials, who took the children for a joy ride in the boat, had done so with good intentions, they did not take the much-needed precautionary measures.

It is a criminal negligence on the part of the Navy, they alleged and demanded immediate action against the guilty officials.

Altogether 78 children and the staff of Borne Tyndle Public school, Handwara in Kupwara district had gone on the excursion.

The children had requested the Indian Navy men, deployed in the lake for counter-insurgency operations, to take them for a ride on the motorboat. When one of the boats with about 30 to 40 children reached the middle of the lake, it capsized.

Navy officials and others present there immediately jumped into the lake and saved a number of children.

The other boat ferrying almost about the same number of children returned safely.

UNI