Islamabad

Over 50 people are presumed to be dead after a boat carrying over 100 wedding guests capsized in the Indus River near Machke, approximately 65 km from Rahim Yar Khan.

Majority of the survivors are men since they managed to swim ashore.

The accident took place on Monday when a wedding party was returning to Machke from Khrore village in two boats.

Around eight members of a single family belonging to the Solangi clan drowned in the accident along with their relatives.

The bodies of the deceased were laid down in the ancestral graveyards in their native village Hussain Bakhsh Solangi near Machke in Sindh.

Clan chief Sardar Abbas Khan Solangi attended the funeral prayers for the 26 people including two children and a woman whose bodies were fished out from the river.

Solangi demanded compensation from Sindh and Punjab governments as he blamed them for failure to construct bridges in the area forcing people to use worn-out wooden boats to cross the river.

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A contingent of 18 Pakistan Army divers are involved in the rescue efforts.