Five children drown in Upper Kohistan

MANSEHRA: Five children, including two brothers, drowned in the river in Kandia valley in Upper Kohistan on Friday.

“The gushing water swept away five children, three of them schoolboys, in two different incidents and bodies of two of them have been fished out by locals,” Malik Umar, a local elder, told reporters.

The first incident occurred in the Marshahi area of valley when three schoolchildren, who were on their way back to their homes, fell into the river while crossing a wooden bridge. “The bodies of two brothers, who belonged to the family of Maulana Bakhtak, were fished out and search for their friend is still in progress,” said Malik Umar.

The other incident occurred in Kunai area where two friends drowned in the river while swimming. The search for the bodies of both, stated to be sons of Shah Alam and Jehanzeb, was underway. Malik Umar told reporters that there were no bridges at Kandia and people mostly crossed the river through wooden planks.