Gujarat bridge collapse: West Bengal teen, a good swimmer, among those dead

PURBASTHALI (EAST BURDWAN): A 17-year-old boy from Bengal was among the 134 dead in the Gujarat bridge collapse on Sunday evening. Habibul Sk had gone to the Morbi bridge with a group of friends to watch the Chhath puja. All of them were good swimmers but while four of his friends could swim ashore after the bridge collapsed, Habibul couldn't save himself. His friends, while searching for Habibul, dragged several people to safety but couldn't find him. They suspect he was pinned down by a portion of the fallen bridge. The teenager's body is expected to reach his Purbasthali home around midnight on Monday.
A resident of East Burdwan's Kesabbati village under Purbasthali (II) block, Habib-ul dropped out of school and moved to Gujarat eight months ago to train as a goldsmith. "He was a good student, but left studies to support his family," said Pulak Chakraborty, one of his teachers at Mahadevpur High School. In Gujarat, he stayed with his uncle's family.
"Before going to the bridge, he called me around 5.30pm and wanted to know about his mother. Later at night, my brother called up to say he is no more," said Habibul's father Mohibul Sk, a daily wage labourer. Mother Lufta, a heart patient, was inconsolable.
‘Teen must have been trapped under portion of bridge’
Bengal teen Habibul Sk was among the 134 people killed in the Gujarat bridge collapse on Sunday.
Speaking to TOI from Morbi, where the incident took place, family friend Sk Azimuddin said: “Green Chawk, the place where we live is just a 10-minute walk from the cable bridge. All these boys from Bengal are expert swimmers. Even Riyz, a 10-year-old whowas with them survived with a fractured arm. These youths helped save many people but are traumatised that they could not find Habibul. He must have been trapped under something. It wasn’t too difficult to swim across. ”
On Monday morning, OC Purbathashali Sandip Ganguli, MLA Tapan Chatterjee visited Habibul’s home. East Burdwan district magistrate Priyanka Singla said the body would reach home late on Monday or early Tuesday. “We have a 7. 40 pm flight to Kolkata. We are completing the paperwork to fly back with the coffin,” Habibul’s uncle Sahibul told TOI from Morbi.