September 07, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 06, 1429

MIANWALI, Sept 6: Eighteen schoolchildren, including seven from a family, drowned when their van plunged into a canal about 25km from here on Saturday morning.

Khadija and her brother Atif survived as they jumped out of the vehicle moments before it fell into the canal.

The van was going from Muzaffarpur Shomali to Wan Bhachran and the accident took place near the narrow Pathi Tharokhel Bridge on the Muhajir Branch Canal.

The surviving boy and girl raised alarm and called for help. Farmers, who were working in nearby fields, tried to rescue the children, but their efforts failed. The canal is 12 feet deep and has a flow of 1,200 cusecs.

Irrigation authorities closed the canal to retrieve the bodies.

Divers were called in from the Chashma Barrage and the police department. A crane pulled the van out of the canal.

Bodies of 11 students and van driver Imran could be retrieved till late night.

Students whose bodies were retrieved were identified as Maqsoodur Rehman, Riffat, Hayat, Ibrar, Naveed, Qasier Abbas, Saqib Hussain, Mohammad Akram, Kulsoom, Murtaza and Sher Ali.

Saleemullah, Jafar, Fazal Karim, Adnan, Sabiha Kausar, Kausar and Saima remained unaccounted for.

Moving scenes were witnessed as people stood on either banks of canal, waiting for the bodies of their loved ones.

Ali Mohammad lost all of his children — two sons and two daughters. Salah Mohammad was handed over the body of his daughter and he was still wailing for another whose body was yet to be retrieved.

Khadim Husain lost one of his daughters, Sabiha. His other daughter and a son survived.

The van driver not only lost his life but also those of six children related to him.

Riffat, who was on her way to seek admission to the Degree College in Mianwali, was among the dead.