DADU: Nine people died from heatstroke in Sehwan on Tuesday while many other devotees fainted amid extremely hot weather conditions as thousands of people gathered at the shrine of Hazrat Lal Shahbaz Qalandar to participate in 762nd Urs celebrations.

The mercury shot up to 50 degrees Celsius in Dadu district on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, two devotees, Mohammad Imran, son of Khuda Bukhsh, and Qamar Zaman, son of Fida Hussain, drowned in the Indus while having a dip to beat the heat. Local fishermen fished out their bodies.

Seven of the victims were identified as Hidayatullah, son of Mohammad Bukhsh, Tahira, daughter of Asghar, Gul Hassan, son of Ali Mohammad, Mumtaz, son of Ghulam Abbas, Abdul Majeed, son of Karamuddin, Zulfiqar and Abdul Aziz.

The other two victims were yet to be identified.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014