Murud tragedy raises questions on safety

Pune on Tuesday bid a tearful adieu to the victims of the Murud tragedy even as questions were being raised about the safety in beaches across the Konkan coast of Maharashtra.

Fourteen students from Pune’s Maharashtra Cosmopolitan Education Society’s Abeda Inamdar Senior College of Arts, Science and Commerce, drowned off the Murud beach in Raigad district on Monday.

“We have lost everything,” said Mumtaz Ansari, a parent. Bilal Shaikh, who escaped narrowly, said that he is still shaken by the incident.

“It happened in just5 minutes….One of the girls, Swapnali, was the first who was trapped and she screamed for help. Others rushed there…no one knew that it was a danger zone…within 5 minutes there were huge waves and everything was over in 5 minutes,” a visibly-shaken Bilal said.

He regretted that there were no alerts given to them. “No one told us that there is a danger zone out there…we had our lunch and hit the shores around 2:30 pm. For around 30 minutes it was okay, then everything was finished,” he said, adding that Madki Saif Ahmed, the 14th  body to be retrieved on Tuesday, was his close friend.  “In the bus, we travelled together….and now he is no more. There is a deep sense of grief…I don’t know how to overcome,” he said.

Two local fishermen from Murud, who saved six students, said that students were dragged by the tide,” said Ravi one of the fishermen.