July 28, 2008	Monday	Rajab 24, 1429

SUKKUR, July 27: Three children, two of them girls, drowned in Nara canal in Patni, near Sukkur on Saturday night.

Eight-year-old Shahmir and his six-year-old sister Shumaila, children of Afzal Umrani, and six-year-old Saima, daughter of Hazoor Bux Umrani, were playing on the banks of the Nara canal when they slipped into it and drowned.

Local divers recovered their bodies after three hours of efforts.

Afzal Umrani and Hazoor Bux Umrani, both residents of Jacobabad, had come to Sukkur to work in date orchards.

In Naushahro Feroze district, three pilgrims drowned in the Indus River near Muhib Patan in Kandiaro on Sunday however a pilgrim was rescued later.

A number of people of Mohammad Saleh Rajpar village were going to the shrine of Muhban Shah on the other side of the river.

They were waiting for a boat to take them to other side of the river. In the meantime some of the pilgrims decided to go for a swim.

Zameer, 25, his brother Mohammad Urs, 22, and Raheel, 20, drowned in the river.

Divers rescued Zameer who was shifted to Kandiaro hospital.

The bodies of other two had not been recovered till the filing of this report.