Fun dive that turned fatal

Nishwan Rasool:

Last Friday when people in adjacent areas of City Centre here were going to offer Friday prayers, Shakir Bhat, 15, stopped in the middle of the footbridge that connects the Bund with Raj Bagh locality. Accompanied by a friend, the teen from Tyndale Biscoe School was about to do the impossible – he was going to jump into Jehlum. The lads were joined by other friends at the footbridge. “Initially there appeared chaos, we tried to stop them,” says one of the Shakir’s friend.



Two boys from Biscoe School watch Jehlum waters from the spot where Shakir jumped on Friday last

Perhaps, he had second thoughts, but the other boy who set out with Shakir to jump from the bridge had dived moments before jumping from the dangerous spot.

Shakir’s friends asked him not to jump. “We shouted at him not to jump but a group of girls who were passing by egged him on” says the friend.

Despite being a dangerous stunt the boy who had jumped before him had credentials to do so, he says.

According to his friends the applause prompted to alter his decision and jump into the deadly river never to return again.

While Shakir’s relatives continue to camp at the site of incident, his classmates are finding it almost impossible to comprehend the loss. He is remembered and missed every moment. In his class room- 10th Red, the third desk as one enters- where Shakir would sit has been left empty. Even his close friends have been shifted to another section of the class.



But that hasn’t helped. “We start the day thinking when will his body be fished out and we sleep with the same thoughts,” say his friends who spend time waiting at the banks after the school gets over.

Shakir’s classmates, who shared a bench with him, remember him as a ‘person with a good heart’, endeared to everyone who knew him.

“Seven days have passed, but the episode is still roving in our minds, it is our worst nightmare,” say Shakir’s friends.

The shock and despair on their face is far too evident even after eight days of the incident. “He always used to carry lunch from home, which we stole,” says a close friend.

The students are angry at the lack of interest shown by the school. “When the principal’s son got married, we had a week long holiday. But when one of our classmates drowned, no one is even bothered to talk about it,” the students say.

Their anger hasn’t found a vent. About four days ago a solidarity rally arranged through social networking site was scuttled using repressive measures. “As we came out of the school, the police team intercepted and prevented us from taking out the rally. The students, including girls offered stiff resistance and tried to move to footbridge, where Shakir's family is camping for the last eight days,” says a student.

“We had arranged a peaceful solidarity rally but police, chased and beat us outside the school, they even didn’t leave the students of 5th and 6th class they were also beaten,” Omer a student adds.

“We received batons and abuses for holding a solidarity rally. Is this what we call a justice and a democratic state,” he questions.

They believe that the government is not taking the search operation seriously and see it just as a river-rafting exercise. “At the end of the day they come out with perplexed faces after cleaning the garbage from the river,” says a disgruntled student.

Stating the act as imprudent, a senior staff member at Tyndale Biscoe school was told after the incident by some students, “12 students were planning to jump from the footbridge on the same day to see who among them could swim fastest to the banks. However, the unfortunate incident acted as a deterrent for them.”

He expresses need for a rescue point to be set up near the bridges as most drowning incidents occur there. “More they delay in doing so, lesser are he chances of salvaging the lives of people,” he says.

Faheem Bakhtoo is a former student at Biscoe School. He has been watching the rescue operation since the incident took place and he seems visibly disappointed. “I believe that the government hasn’t taken their jobs seriously. It looks as if they are enjoying boat rafting there,” he says.

The strategy employed by various rescue teams from different departments is to create whirlpool in the river by moving boats in circular motion and putting hooks.

However, experts say that such strategies are faulty when applied in a moving water body like a river.


Abdul Ahad (name changed), an official of the State’s Water Transportation Department feels that such incidents could be prevented but lack of resources rescue are major constraint.

Ahad says that Kashmir has Asia’s two biggest fresh water lakes and three major river and the resources deployed to guard such mammoth territory is miniscule.

It is pertinent to mention that the river rescue team has not for the first time failed to fish out the drowned. Recently, Omar Farooq, 10, who drowned after a pack of stray dogs chased him in Old City, was fished out by locals in Sumbal in North Kashmir after 23 days.

In such cases locals living near the banks are informed about the drowned person. Ahad says, “Identification and contact details are given to people living along the banks of Jehlum in North Kashmir and are asked to inform the relatives if the body comes up.”

However, the state administration claims that they are well equipped to carry out such rescue operations. “We have a sufficient number of boats for the operation. But we need professional water divers who could search below the water and would be good enough to use the underwater equipments,” says Amir Ali, Officer on Special Duty at Divisional Commissioners office.

He says, “We are trying our level best to find out the body. We are hoping to fish out his body at the Chattabal Weir.”