BET À DAY
At least 18 women drowned and dozens were missing in Pakistan after a boat carrying 100 family members sank on Monday for a wedding, police and officials said. local authorities.
The boat was crossing the Indus in a wedding procession between the villages of Mashka and Kharor in the sub-district of Sadiqabad in the Pakistani province of Punjab, according to these sources.
Eighteen women were confirmed dead and 25 to 30 people were “either rescued by locals who live on the banks of the river or managed to reach the shore at the swimming,” Sadiqabad administration spokesman Rana Kashif Mehmood said.
Rescuers are at the scene, he added.
According to a police officer , Mohammad Hammad, “most of the drowned seem to be women”, because “most men could swim”.
“The death toll may increase”, he said. he says.
Rural people in Pakistan often use boats to get around, in preference to more expensive road trips, on poor roads often far from their homes.
But women in Pakistan are not encouraged to learn to swim, as their behavior in public is still largely governed by conservative codes.