Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi with Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and PCC chief Bhuwneswar Kalita visited the boat accident site at Medartari in Western Assam’s Dhubri district on Wednesday.
However, even after 48 hours of the biggest boat tragedies, no body exactly knows how many people were on board the ill-fated boat that capsized in the Brahamaputra on Monday.
The district administration earlier claimed to have rescued 103 bodies, but on Wednesday Assam forest minister and state government spokesperson Rockybul Hussain said that they have recovered 22 bodies and 42 others are reported missing. “Though, overall death toll will be more, I have been told that administration has recovered only 22 bodies,” said Mr Hussain. Earlier, Mr Gandhi, who came in an Air Force MI-16 chopper, spent 45 minutes on the incident site and consoled 42 bereaved families who were identified and brought by the administration for a face to face with him. As it was feared that bodies of victim being washed away, the authorities on Wednesday contacted its counterpart in Dhaka seeking help.