Himachal tragedy: Late rescue bid killed many

Hyderabad: Many students of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute feel that if the rescue operation had started early, many of the students who were washed away in the Beas could have been saved. The students believe that the cops were inactive even after they reached the spot, and they did not carry out any rescue mission till the next morning.

“If it had happened to a VIP, they would have started rescue operations in the night itself. Since this happened to a group of students, they started only the next morning,” said Nikhil Kumar Yadav, a third year student of the institute.

Police took more than one and a half hours to reach the spot, but did little after that. “Despite our repeated pleas to shut the Larji dam and start the rescue mission, none of the policemen listened to us. When I asked a cop where the swimmers were, he said they were rescuing the victims a few kilometers away. When I went there, the area was deserted,” said Srujan, a survivor.

“The rescue team could have used hi-tech equipment and adequate force from the beginning, which would have saved some lives,” said N.R. Lohith, a student representative. Students said that Bose was alive for more than 10 hours after being washed away as per the postmortem. “Devashish’s parents told us that the doctor had told them that he was alive for 10 hours. If the rescue had been launched fast they could have saved him,” said Nikhil.