Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today expressed grief over the incident of 24 engineering students being washed away in Beas river in Himachal Pradesh and termed the tragedy as "catastrophe" for the affected families.
In a condolence message, the Chief Minister shared his sympathies with the bereaved families.
He described the incident as a "catastrophe" which has befallen on the hapless families whose beloved ones have been washed away in the prime of their youth and their bright future and career had been cut short mid way.
Expressing solidarity with the Telangana government, the Chief Minister assured his counterpart of all support, saying the people of Punjab and the state government were deeply shocked and saddened over the incident.
Badal also pledged all possible assistance to the Himachal Pradesh government for carrying out rescue operations in fishing out the bodies.
Bodies of five of the students have been fished out so far.
The victims were part of a group of 48 students studying 2nd year Electronics and Instrumentation at a private engineering college in Hyderabad. The group was on a study tour of HP when the tragedy struck.
