Sudan Das’ daughter was scheduled to get married on Saturday. Sudan’s nephew Sinoj, who worked in Kathmandu as a construction worker, was on his way home in Rautahat to attend his cousin’s marriage in a night bus on Thursday. But he never reached home. By postponing the daughter’s wedding, Sudan and his elder brother Budhan arrived at the Simaltal area along the Muglin-Narayanghat road section to know the whereabouts of the latter’s son Sinoj.

Sinoj was aboard one of the two passenger buses that were swept away by a mudslide into the rain-swollen Trishuli River near Simaltal along the Narayanghat-Muglin road section at around 3:30 am on Friday. A Kathmandu-bound Angel Deluxe Bus and a Ganapati Deluxe Bus, en route to Gaur of Rautahat district from Kathmandu, were pushed into the river by the mudslide. Though it is yet to be confirmed, it is suspected that about 50 people went missing in the disaster. According to Indradev Yadav, chief district officer of Chitwan, it has been confirmed so far that there were 24 people on the bus heading to Kathmandu and 27 people on another vehicle en route to Rautahat.

Budhan was speechless when the Post met him at the accident site. “We don’t have much hope of finding him alive,” said Sudan, urging the authorities concerned to intensify the search mission. “The government should at least help us to find the body.”

The bereaved Das brothers recorded information at the police officers deployed in the incident site. They desperately looked at the murky water of the rain-swollen Trishuli River where the Nepal Army personnel and divers of the Armed Police Force were searching for the missing victims and the bus wreckage. “How will they find the victims? At least I want to see my son’s face,” Budhan finally spoke in his trembling voice.

The victims’ relatives walked about the accident site impatiently. Shashi Bhushan Jaiswal of Baudhimai Municipality-4, Rautahat, was awaiting the security personnel’s response. He came to the Simaltal area to find Prince, son of his younger brother. “He had been studying in Kathmandu in grade 10,” Shashi said. “He was coming home as he had a few days of monsoon vacation.”Shashi added that some of his villagers also went missing in the tragedy.

The bereaved relatives expressed their dissatisfaction regarding the government’s ‘lackadaisical’ response in finding the missing victims. “This is a big tragedy. Only a few rescuers and divers have been mobilised,” said Mohan Prasad Jaisawal, who accompanied Shahi. “The government should ask help from other countries if the available resources are insifficient to find the victims.”

CDO Yadav said all the available human resources trained for the rescue work in water-induced disaster and tools have been used to the fullest in the search operation. Rescue teams from the Nepal Army and divers from the Disaster Management Training Institute of the APF at Kurintar have been mobilised at the incident site.

“Some trained divers were brought from Bangladesh in the past but the divers of the APF and army are trained and capable now,” said Yadav.

Despite arduous efforts from personnel of the Nepal Army, Nepal Police and the APF since early morning on Saturday, only two bodies of the passenger were found as of Saturday evening.

The search and rescue teams who had worked the whole day on Friday halted their operations later in the evening. According to Yadav, the body of Hrishipal Sah, a resident of the Indian state of Bihar, was recovered from Golaghat, Chitwan. Two bodies were recovered from Gaidakot in Nawalparasi East. One of the bodies was confirmed to be a missing victim. “The relative confirmed that one body is of Ramit Kishor Majhi, aged 19, who was on his way to Rautahat from Kathmandu,” said Yadav. Identity of another body is yet to be ascertained.

The authorities claimed that the rescuers left no stone unturned to find the whereabouts of the missing. By issuing an statement on Saturday, assistant Chief District Officer of Chitwan Khimananda Bhusal informed that the divers had been searching the bodies by using cameras operational underwater and other various tools to trace out the bodies and wreckages of the buses.

The incident site is around 22 kilometres north-east from Narayanghat. Three passengers travelling in Ganapati Deluxe survived the fatal crash—Jugeshwar Raya Yadav from ward 9 of Garuda Municipality, Nandan Das from ward 1 of Gonahi Municipality, and Saroj Gupta, all from Rautahat district. Gupta was discharged after minor treatment at a government hospital in Bharatpur. Yadav and Das are undergoing treatment at Chitwan Medical College in Bharatpur.

Jugeshwar was returning from Kathmandu after the treatment of his son and daughter. He said that he was on the bus along with his 10-year-old son, daughter and two grandchildren. “Now I am here at the hospital,” he said. “But all of my children were trapped inside the bus.”