Boatman Saves Tourists, Drowns After Being Forced to Recover Bag

Indian Navy divers joined the search operations, but the body of the sixty-year-old boatman has not been found yet.

eyewitnesses reveal that after saving the three tourists, Guroo dived back and even got hold of the bag but could not swim back to the shore due to exhaustion. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@Travelinthemix)

Ghulam Mohammad Guroo, a 60-year-old shikarawala paid the ultimate price for upholding the ethos of Kashmiri hospitality. Guroo, rescued three tourists from drowning in the Jhelum river but lost his life after he was allegedly forced to jump back into the river to retrieve their bag, police revealed on Saturday.

A team of Indian Navy divers joined the search operations to search for his body, but the body of the sixty-year-old boatman has not been found yet.

According to a report published in Hindustan Times, eyewitnesses reveal that after saving the three tourists, Guroo dived back and even got hold of the bag but could not swim back to the shore due to exhaustion.

Other boatmen from the area have claimed that the tourists who had earlier pushed Guroo into jumping back again rushed into an auto-rickshaw after the incident and left without even bothering to find if Guroo had survived.

Family Blames “Heartless” Tourists

Guroo’s family and friends have accused the three tourists of being “heartless”, and has blamed them for valuing their luggage more than the shikarawala’s life.

He saved their lives and he lost his while doing so but they are now nowhere to be found. They just didn’t care to even enquire. It was their greed that they asked him to go back into the water to get their bag. Is your bag more valuable or a man’s life?

Abdul Qayoom, a house-boat owner and friend of Guroo

Guroo’s family stood on the banks of Jhelum on Saturday as police carried out search operations, though police sources have said that finding the body was almost impossible. The police suspects that the river’s strong flow may have swept the body kilometres away downstream.