Nine of family airlifted from flooded field

Tribune News Service
Karnal, August 19

Nine members of a family, seven of them children, were airlifted from a submerged field in the district’s Garhpur Tapu village near the Yamuna river in the wee hours of Monday. 

Musthkin, his wife Kurbana, four daughters and three sons were working in the field when the Yamuna water level rose to 6 lakh cusecs around 10 pm, leaving them stranded. 

They informed villager residents through phone. As soon as they got information, villagers sounded the alarm. 

Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said, “We tried to rescue them with the help of a boat, but the high current in the river foiled our plan.”

“We informed Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora about the stranded family. She coordinated with Natural Disaster Management Department Joint Secretary Sanjeev Jindal and arranged a helicopter from the Indian Air Force (IAF) base camp at Sarsawa in Uttar Pradesh. The chopper reached here around 2.30 am on Monday.” 

It was difficult to locate the family in the dark. They were traced with the help of the tower location of Musthkin’s mobile phone,” the DC said, adding all members of the family were safe. 

“We are thankful to the districts authorities and the state government for saving our lives,” Musthkin said. 

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh Virk also shared the information on his Twitter account. “The Karnal police by coordinating with the IAF saved the lives of nine persons who got stuck in a riverine island in Karnal due to the sudden rise of water in the Yamuna by getting them airlifted at 2.45 am despite adverse weather,” he tweeted.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), meanwhile, rescued seven labourers stranded in a submerged field in the district’s Dabkoli Khurd village. Karnal Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Narinder Malik confirmed their rescue.