HARIPUR/SHANGLA: Three persons, including two brothers, drowned in separate incidents on Tuesday.

Two brothers drowned in the canal of Khanpur Dam, while another boy was rescued, police and hospital sources said.

Khanpur police quoted witnesses as saying that an Afghan family from Mardan had come to Mohallah Rajgan, Khanpur, to spend a few days with their relatives.

On Tuesday afternoon, the family went for a picnic to the left bank canal of Kahnpur Dam, when three minor boys jumped into water to beat the heat. However, they were swept away by strong currents.

The family called local divers for help, who fished out the boys from the water and shifted them to Khanpur Hospital, where the doctors pronounced two of them dead, who were later identified as brothers. Their cousin survived.

The deceased were identified as Sameer, 10, and Abubakar, 8. The rescued boy was identified as Ehsanullah, 9.

It may be added that despite the ban on bathing in water bodies under Section 144 of CrPC, 14 people, including three teenage girls and four boys, have so far drowned in Haripur district during the past one month.

In Shangla, a young man drowned in the River Indus while trying to rescue his son stranded midair over the river in a manually-operated chairlift in Shang area of Bisham tehsil on Tuesday.

Locals told Dawn that a 13-year-old boy was stranded in the chairlift midair over the River Indus. They said his father was trying to rescue his son through a rope when he fell into the river after the rope broke, and drowned.

However, local people put in hectic efforts and rescued the stranded boy.

Witnesses said the deceased, Abdul Aziz hailed from Allai tehsil of Battagram district. They said the local people used to cross the river in the manually-operated chairlift.

Torkhan, an uncle of the drowned man, told Dawn that they had contacted Rescue 1122 Bisham station to help rescue the boy, but they did not come.

Rasool Khan Sharif, Rescue 1122 spokesman for Shangla, when contacted told Dawn their station received one call and when they moved the team, the caller informed them that the boy had already been rescued.

Locals said such chairlifts were dangerous for commuting, especially over the River Indus.

Bisham assistant commissioner Adnan Khan sealed the chairlift.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2024