14 of a family killed as rescue boat hits live wire
By Nadeem Saeed
MULTAN, July 11: Fourteen members of a family were electrocuted when a boat evacuating flood victims hit a live electricity cable in the Rojhan Mazari area of Rajanpur district on Monday. Twenty others suffered serious injuries. Reports reaching here said 34 people, most of them women and children, belonging to Khird sub-clan of the Mazari tribe were on the boat which they had hired to get out of their flood-hit Khairpur village in a kutcha area along the river Indus.
The boat hit the 11kv pole when it was passing by the Nawaz Khalti village and its mast touched the live cable. Six women, five men and three children were among the dead.
Rescuers have found the bodies of 13 victims while the body of a child was missing till late evening.
However, military sources in Rawalpindi said that army rescue teams had recovered all the 14 bodies.
The injured were taken to the Rojhan THQ hospital where 11 of them were admitted. Four of them were shifted to the Shaikh Zaid Hospital in Rahim Yar Khan when their condition deteriorated.
Rajanpur district officer (coordination) Muhammad Arshad Gopang told Dawn that Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had announced a compensation of Rs100,000 each to be paid to the family of the dead and Rs15,000 for each of the injured.
