Five minors among six die in Nawabshah boat tragedy

NAWABSHAH: Six members of a family, including five children, drowned when their boat overturned in a water park on Thursday. The pool converted into a makeshift water park, was functioning without any safety measures or trained personnel who could rescue the helpless victims, thus turning harmless entertainment into a family tragedy.

The large pond in which the boat overturned was hardly eight to ten feet deep, but the absence of any safety measures led to the tragedy, said Additional Commissioner Imtiaz Rajpar. There were neither any swimmers or any safety gear that could have been deployed to avert the tragedy, he claimed. The boating space, he said was actually a pond of a brick kiln that was converted into water park and children enjoy boat rides there.

All the bodies were recovered, along with two children who were rescued live, Rajpar said. Those killed include Mst Shahnaz 60, Kashisj 13, Koomal 5, Husnain 5, Aijaz 5 and three-year old Siddique. He said the owner of water park Abdul Ghaffar has been taken into custody.

Overcome with grief, the head of the affected family, Fateh Muhammad Unar demanded action against persons responsible for negligence. He questioned how the water park was allowed to function without adequate safety and security measures. The accident victims belonged to a poor newspaper hawker's family.