Nepal seeks India’s assistance to search for missing passengers swept away in landslide

KATHMANDU: Nepal has formally requested India’s assistance in locating the two buses and over five dozen passengers swept away in the landslide in Central Nepal earlier on Friday morning.

Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs wrote to India on Monday, asking for India’s assistance to search for the missing buses and passengers. “We have written to the Indian government asking for technical assistance, including the divers, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal”, Bhismakumar Bhusal, Joint Secretary at the Disaster and Conflict Management Division under the Home Ministry, confirmed over the phone.

“All the available resources don’t seem to be enough; that’s why we have asked India for assistance. It’s first time that we’ve asked them for this kind of assistance”, Bhusal added. Nepal had asked for Bangladesh’s assistance for a search operation of a similar kind in previous years.

WATCH: Rescuers search for dozens missing after landslide sweeps buses into Trishuli river pic.twitter.com/3aCHwPNKYF

— The Kathmandu Post (@kathmandupost) July 12, 2024

In the letter sent to India, Nepal has sought supporting technologies that would help to trace and retract the dead bodies or possible remains from the Trishuli River, where the two passenger buses were swept into by the landslide.

As per the record till Tuesday morning, a total of 13 bodies of passengers were recovered after the two buses were swept away by a landslide in Bharatpur metropolis-29, Simaltal, Chitwan, on Friday morning.

According to the police, nine bodies were recovered from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat Susta East), three from Chitwan, and one from Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta West). Deputy Superintendent of Police Bed Bahadur Poudel, Information Officer at the District Police Office in Nawalparasi (Bardaghat-Susta East), confirmed that four bodies were found in the district on Monday alone.

Of the nine bodies recovered in Nawalpur, the identities of five have been confirmed as passengers from the swept-away buses. The remaining four bodies are yet to be identified but are believed to be among the missing passengers. Two of the bodies were recovered near the Gandak Barrage Bridge, and the other two were found along the Narayani river bank at Madhyabindu-2.

The identified bodies from three districts include 19-year-old Ramit Kasur Majhi of Barahathawa municipality-3 (Sarlahi), Bikas Pariyar, 22, of Madi-1 (Chitwan), Sajad Ansari (30) of Bihar’s Betiya, Rahum Miya (17) of Jamunamai rural municipality-4 (Rautahat), Rishipal Sah, 28, of Sitamadi Barganiya, India, Jay Prakash Thakur (30) of Sitamadi Betiya (India), and Paramananda Pandit (43) of Bara. These bodies have been sent to Bharatpur Hospital. (ANI)