While seven people drowned in the Kamala River in Sindhuli district, two people died after a boat capsized in the Koshi.
Till Monday evening, three people swept away by the Kamala river were still missing while rescuers were struggling to trace at least 15 people who disappeared in the Koshi river.[break]
A boat headed toward Rampur Thokshila of Udaypur district from Chatara Ghat of Sunsari capsized just before it reached the other end, killing two women.
The boat was overloaded, with more than 80 people. Survivors said the boat capsized as some of them jumped off in haste.
Police have identified the dead as Parbati Khadka, 40, of Rampur Thokshila-3 in Udayapur, and Chandra Kumari Rai, 53, of Mahendranagar VDC-4 in Sunsari. Their bodies were recovered one hour later.
According to the police, nine of the 13 missing are from Udayapur district. They include Muna Khadka, Roshika Khadka, Tek Raj Rai, Jur Man Rai, Parsani Rai, Ratna Rai, Kopila Bishta, Shri Narayan Shrestha and Sapana Magar of Udayapur. Prem Shresha of Bhojpur, Amrit Biswokarma of Dhankuta and a four-year-old son of Kumar Biswokarma, whose address is not yet known, are missing too. One of the missing is yet to be identified.
´The number of missing could go up,´ said SP Ajay Bhattarai, chief of the District Police Office, Udaypur. All the dead and missing were Hindu pilgrims.
They had gathered at Chatara Ghat, on the banks of the Koshi, to get a bottle of "holy" water and offer it to an idol of the deity Shiva.
Meanwhile, according to Republica correspondents Suresh Yadav ( in Janakpur) and Santosh Singh (Sarlahi), seven pilgrims were swept to their deaths while trying to cross the Kamala river in Hatpate VDC of Sindhuli. Three more people, who were also swept away by the river, were still missing till evening.
While two of the five dead pilgrims identified the by police are from India, the rest are Nepali. Other two dead were yet to be identified as of Monday evening.
According to police, Ganga Devi Nuniya, 38, and Shobhiya Devi Nuniya, 45, of Mahottari, Rampari Devi Ram, 40, of Sarlahi, and Ajay Ram, 17, and Ram Briksha Thakur, 50, of Bihar in India are among the dead.
All the pilgrims who drowned were on a pilgrimage to the Madhuganga Mahadev Temple of Sindhuli district. Names of the pilgrims missing in the Kamala are yet to be ascertained.
Tirtha Baral, Hatpati VDC chairman of the CPN-UML, said the pilgrims were compelled to cross the river as an under-construction bridge was yet to be completed. Baral also urged the Sindhuli District Development Office to complete the bridge at the earliest.
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