Srinagar, May 22: Even as Navy divers retreated to the banks of river Jhelum at Lal Mandi area here on Sunday, sobbing parents were up in arms against the administration for failing to retrieve the body of their loved one.
 It was for the third consecutive day that the divers failed to fish-out the body of Muhammad Shakir Bhat from the river.
 While the Navy divers abandoned the search operation on Sunday, the river police and civil defence authorities were clueless as alleged by the family of the Biscoe school.
 Shakir, a 10th class student of Tyndale Biscoe School got drowned on May 20 while trying to swim across the river Jhelum. 
 The family similarly alleged that police on Sunday didn’t allow the to stage protest near the spot at Lal Mandi
 “We were going to protest to call for serious attention from government about the incident,” said the members of the family.
  “Police’s river wing and other teams have gone for the search of the body in the river for hardly five to six times. Authorities come here, inspect the spot and leave,” said a cousin of the deceased amid sobs.
 “The authorities are going for searches at their will, least concerned about the tragedy that has befallen the family,” said uncle of Shakir.
 In the evening two boats from river police and civil defence were making occasional rounds of small area in the river.
 “We are thankful to local boatmen for their help who tried fish out the body. Police and other authorities are not playing the role they are expected,” said a neighbour of Bhat family.
 Shakir’s uncle Ghulam Qadir Bhat said the whole exercise by the state administration is going nowhere. “It is directionless. The authorities told us the water is cold and turbid which is making difficult for them to continue the search manually,” he said. 
 The Bhat family is now mulling to seek intervention of the school authorities to help them search their son’s body.
 SSP Srinagar Ashiq Bukhari said, “We trying our level best to retrieve the body and the rescue operation takes time.”
 He said that people should learn to appreciate what police is trying to do during the search operation.
 Meanwhile, the failure to trace Shakir’s body has put a question mark on preparedness of the administration to tackle such emergencies.
 The administration, itself, has no trained divers and the required equipment.
 "Our role should have been to save the boy, but we had no manpower and equipment available. We have it available in the Dal Lake," said an official from Div Com office.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:00 IST