Man drowns as boat capsizes in Khanpur Dam

HARIPUR: A man drowned when a boat overturned during a windstorm that hit the area on Thursday afternoon.

Officials said that local divers rescued five members of the family and the boat driver while a youth, from the ill-fated family, was still missing. Divers had to suspend the rescue operation due to darkness, said SHO Khanpur Police Station, Haroon Khan.

Police and eyewitnesses said that a family from Peshawar was on a picnic to Khanpur Dam and decided to take a boat ride and when their boat reached the middle or the Khanpur reservoir, the heavy winds overturned. However, the local divers rushed to the site of the accident and rescued five of them. They were identified as Shakila Naz, wife of Shakil Ahmed, Awais, 3, Yasir 12 and Hafsa 7, d/o Shakil and the boat’s driver Khalid.

While Suleman, 20, went missing and despite efforts he could not be rescued, the SHO told newsmen. When approached for comments, the president Boats Association Khanpur Raja Hanif Ahsan Kiyani confirmed that the heavy winds caused the accident and all the picnickers were wearing life jackets. He said that the winds were so heavy that several boats and jetties parked on the reservoir’s bank were also damaged after colliding with each other.

Meanwhile, in another rain and heavy winds related incident a boy was killed while his two cousins were injured critically when the boundary wall of their house fell on them in the village. Sarahdna in Khanpur area. Police and hospital sources said that the boys were playing the street of the village when the heavy winds started blowing coupled with downpour and the boys moved near the brickwall of their home to take shelter but it fell, burying them all.

The area people launched a rescue operation and recovered the injured boys who were shifted to Khanpur Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where one of the three injured identified as Abdul Rehman 17, was pronounced dead.