THATTA: A recreational hunting trip turned into a tragedy early on Wednesday morning when a boat carrying eight residents of Karachi capsized in the open sea near Keti Bandar.
The incident left one person dead and another missing while six others were rescued by local fishermen.
A group of eight anglers had travelled from Karachi to Keti Bandar to hunt birds and catch fish. The vessel reportedly began taking on water and sank at approximately 3am due to overloading or a technical fault.
Nearby local fishermen rushed to the scene upon hearing the distress calls and managed to rescue six individuals. The survivors have been identified as, Rehman Gulri, Mumtaz Gulri, Ghulam Nabi Qazi, Razzaq Gabol, Riaz, Arsalan.
Two members of the group were swept away by the currents. Local divers later recovered the body of one victim identified as Zaheer Ahmed.
The Maritime Security Agency (MSA) personnel and local volunteers were searching for Wahid Bakhsh Gabol when the last reports came in.
Following the incident, grieving relatives and local community members staged a protest against the fisheries department and district administration.
The protesters blocked local routes, alleging that despite the accident occurring in the early hours of Thursday, no official rescue teams or senior administration officials reached the site for several hours.
“It is heartbreaking that despite the passage of many hours, the administration has shown such negligence,” stated a relative of the missing youth. “We are relying almost entirely on local volunteers and fishermen for search operation”.
The protesters called for an inquiry into the delayed search operation.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2026
