Date:02/07/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/07/02/stories/2009070256910500.htm

Other States - Rajasthan

Doha ship tragedy: 8 from Rajasthan feared dead

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR: The ship tragedy in the Doha sea port of Qatar is believed to have claimed eight lives from Rajasthan’s Shekhawati region. In all, 35 persons are feared killed or missing in the tragedy which took place on Tuesday when the ship reportedly got into a storm.

The ship belonged to a company with the name of HBK with which a large number of Indians are employed. There was no official confirmation till late on Wednesday evening about the victims from Rajasthan as the authorities were groping in the dark for details but there was an atmosphere of mourning in Jamadharan village in Sikar district’s Fatehpur tehsil to which seven of the feared victims belonged.

Of the 11 persons feared to have been killed in the tragedy, eight are from Rajasthan and the rest from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The other suspected victim from Rajasthan is from Churu district.

Social activist Asfaque Kayamkani said quoting his friend Mohammed Rafi, an employee of HBK, after a visit to the locality that the victims’ family members were in distress unaware of the whereabouts of their kin after the accident.