Himachal tragedy: Hope diminishes as another body is recovered

The rescue personnel involved in retrieving the bodies of the drowned engineering students of Hyderabad-based VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Himachal Pradesh, succeeded in fishing out two more bodies.

With this the number of bodies recovered has gone up to eight.

One of the bodies could not, however, be identified as it was beyond recognition. DCP Srinivas of Balanagar, Hyderabad, who was sent to Himachal to monitor rescue operations, said the body was badly mutilated due to ramming against rocks and boulders in the fast-flowing hill river Beas.

The search for the remaining 18 bodies from the river is excruciatingly slow despite the best efforts.

National Disaster Management Association (NDMA) vice-chairman Marri Sashidhar Reddy is personally supervising the rescue operations personally. Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy, TRS MPs Jitendar Reedy and Vinod Kumar also visited the mishap site.

- Sakshipost