Bhatkal: Not even a day has passed since the body of the boy who had drowned in Murdeshwar on Tuesday had been recovered; here is the story of another person getting drowned at the Bhatkal Jaali Beach today evening. The death rates due to drowning are getting increased to many folds in the recent days, but yet the public is not deriving any lesson from the incidents.

The deceased has been identified as Moulvi Ismail Ruknuddin, aged 35 years.

According to the sources, a group of around fifteen people had been to Jaali beach for picnic. Three among them decided to go swimming in the evening and stepped into the sea. As all the three were good swimmers, they went quite farther away into the sea in the meantime.

Speaking to Sahilonline, one of them informed that they had gone to such a distance in the sea that their feet were unable touch the ground. When they decided to turn back it was a lot of effort for them. With continuous struggle and lot of swimming when they neared the shore, Molvi Ismail sensing the toughness of situation sought Allah's help and recited the Shahadah "La ilaha Illalla".

Seeing the condition of their companion, the other two, Faizaan and Jameel tried to help him get to the shore. By the time their feet started touching the ground, the other two were also completely exhausted, but yet they dint give up. With continuous effort and struggle they succeeded in bringing him quite near to shore where the water level reached up to their shoulders. By this time the condition of other two got so worse that it got difficult for them to manage their own selves. Their exhaustion made them ask Ismail to continue on his own as they were quite near to the shore. But a little later when they turned back to check for their friend, they got shock of their life seeing that Ismail was no longer following them and was missing from the place. It was told that in the meantime, a wave had washed away Ismail along with it. When the other people on the beach came to know that Ismail had gone missing, many of them immediately jumped into the sea with the hope of finding him but all their efforts went in vain. The incident occurred at about 5.45pm Thursday evening.

The news spread into the town like forest fire and in no more than half an hour thousands of people had gathered on the Jaali beach. The youth from various sports club reached for help. The Coastal Security Guards were also informed immediately. The search began with small fishing boats, but there were no any signs of the victim. The search was carried out till night without any results. The boat of coastal security police reached the incident spot at around 7.15 pm after continuous calls, but till then the entire sea had plunged into darkness.





Inefficiency of Coastal Security Police enrages the public

When the coastal security failed to show up even after continuous calls, the entire crowed got enraged. They alleged that the officers are receiving lakhs of rupees from government on the name of Coastal Security, but the public is not receiving any benefits from it. There is no officer in police station who can ride the motor boat which has been provided for public help. The public informed that they tried to contact the PSI and inspector of Coastal Security on their cell phones but their phones were switched off. When the whereabouts of these officers were enquired in police station, it was told that they were not available even in the station.

The Bhatkal DySP Mr. M Narayan, CPI Shiv Prakash, Rural PSI Naveen Jogi along with other police officials visited the spot for investigation as soon as the town police station received the news.

Moulvi Ismail Ruknuddin

He is the resident of Bhatkal Magdoom Colony, who was serving as a teacher in Magdoom Colony Madrasa Dar-ut-Taleem-wa-Tarbiya from past four years. He was generally known as 'Ismail Janab'. He was also the part time Imam of Maqdoom Colony Jamia Masjid. He has served as the secretary of local sports club. He has left behind a wife and a daughter.

Moral of the story

The incidents of one or two deaths due to drowning are being reported almost every month in the Bhatkal Sea, yet the youth are not taking these incidents seriously. The youth who had drowned in Murdeshwar Sea three days back was from Sagar and the people hailing from the places like Sagar, Shimoga or Bangalore will not be as fluent in swimming as they are away from coast. It is said that they step into the sea without any second thoughts as soon as they witness the beauty of the sea waves, which later becomes the cause of their deaths in many cases. But it is shocking to see the Bhatkali youth that in spite of their knowledge about the Bhatkal Sea and in spite of experiencing repeated drowning incidents are in no mood to take these issues seriously and are continuously stepping into the sea every other day just for the fun of swimming.

It is a high time people start bothering about their own safety and avoid getting into sea especially at monsoon time when the sea tides are at its strongest. The incident gives the lesson that even an expert swimmer is helpless when it comes to the roaring sea waves, and even two experts together cannot save another when it comes to the fury of the sea water.

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