As many as 15 of the 22 people who lost their lives in the Ottumpuram Thoovaltheeram boat tragedy on Sunday evening were children. One of them, Fatima Raina, was only eight months old. Five of the victims were women.
Saidalavi Kunnummal from Puthankadappuram, Parappanangadi, lost 11 members of his family in the tragedy. Their graves were prepared in a row by digging a large pit. And there was not a single dry eye when the 11 bodies of Saidalavi’s family were lowered into their graves.
CM pays last respects
Their bodies were kept at first in front of Saidalavi’s unfinished house, and later at Misbahul Uloom Madrasa, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan paid his last respects. The madrasa and mosque premises witnessed emotional scenes.
Saidalavi lost his wife Zeenath, 42, daughters Hasna, 18, Shamna, 17, Shahla, 12, and Fida Dilna, 8; close relatives Raseena, 28, Sahara, 8, Fatima Rusna, 7, Fatima Raina, 8-months old, Jensia, 44, and Jameer, 10.
The others who died in the tragedy were Anshid Navas, 12, and Aflah Hakeem, 7, from Keezhattur; Siddeek, 41, Fatima Minha, 12, and Mohammed Faisan, 3 , from Pariyapuram, Fadi Fatima, 6, from Anakkayam; Sabaruddin, 38, Adil Sherin, 15, Aysha Beevi, 35, Mohammed Adnan, 10, and Mohammed Afhan, 3.5, from Neduva.
Postmortems of the victims were conducted at government hospitals at Tirur, Tirurangadi, Perinthalmanna, Malappuram and Manjeri on Monday morning. The services of government doctors from neighbouring districts of Kozhikode and Thrissur were called in.
Sabaruddin, 38, from Neduva near Parappanangadi, was a civil police officer. His body was interred with a police gun salute on Monday.
Although 22 bodies were recovered from the sunken ship on Sunday night, there were doubts about some missing persons. Two teams of the Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) resumed the search in the Poorappuzha river on Monday morning. The search was called off later.
Minister for Revenue K. Rajan confirmed that there were 37 people in the boat and 10 were admitted to different hospitals with injuries. He said five people had swum to safety when the boat capsized.
