Three children among four drown

HARIPUR: At least four persons, including two sisters and a brother, drowned in Tarbela Lake and Khanpur dam canal, police and rescue sources said here on Sunday. All the bodies have been fished out and shifted to hospitals, rescue sources and police said.

The first drowning incident was reported from the Tarbela Lake where Niaz Ali, a resident of Alooli village, went to spend Sunday with his four children on the bank of Tarbela Lake and all of the family members started bathing. However, Imtiaz’s two daughters and a son, slipped into deep water accidentally and drowned.

Eyewitnesses and police said that the local divers fished out the bodies of the children who were later identified as Anees Fatima, 13, Liaba Bibi, 12, and their brother Faizan, 9.The bodies of the three siblings were shifted to Haripur Trauma Centre, police and rescue workers said.

In another drowning incident reported from Khanpur, a man in 30s also died after drowning.Police and rescue workers quoted eyewitnesses as saying that some men were bathing in the left bank canal of the Khanpur Dam exactly near the Khanpur Police Station when one of them drowned after getting his foot stuck in some underwater plant.

The rescue workers fished out the body and shifted to Khanpur hospital where the deceased was identified as Tariq Mehmood, 31, a resident of Pakhral Chowk Sector No 2, Khalabat Township. It may be added that despite a ban on bathing and swimming in the canals and the reservoir of Khanpur Dam by the DC Haripur under section 144 of the CrPc, a total of 10 people including three girls have died in drowning incidents during the last two weeks.