SIALKOT, Aug 1: Three people, two of them sisters, drowned on Friday when a boat capsized in river Tavi near Saidpur village located in the Sialkot working boundary’s Bajwat sector.

According to official sources, as many as 10 people, most of them milkmen, were coming to Sialkot when their boat capsized in the high-flooded river Tavi. The sources stated overloading on the boat to be the cause of the accident.

The Rangers’ jawans and local people rescued seven of them, including Muhammad Saleem, Ashraf, Talib, Maqsood, Maulvi Hameed and Habib Ahmad.

Those drowned were Shamsdin, and two sisters Nabeela Talib, 15, and Saba Talib. The rescue teams of the Rangers and the irrigation department were searching the bodies till filing of this report in the evening.

On receiving information, District Nazim Mian Naeem Javed and other government officials visited the spot to monitor the rescue operation.

The Nazim told newsmen that the district administration had already banned the use of boats due to rising water level in Chenab, Tavi and Jammu.