KARACHI: A picnic party of seven young friends turned into tragedy as two of them drowned in the sea near Sandspit beach on Sunday morning. Their bodies were recovered on Monday, officials said.

The seven friends had left their homes in two cars for an outing early on Sunday morning, said Mauripur SHO Mohammed Iqbal.

They had breakfast at around 5am in the Boat Basin area and arrived at Sandspit at about 6am.

A watchman of a nearby hut tried to dissuade the youths from swimming in the sea there as that place was dangerous. Fishermen of nearby villages also asked them to refrain from swimming there, added the officer.

Victims ignored repeated calls to not go swimming in rough waters

Initially the youths left the place, but after a while they returned and started swimming when strong currents pulled two of them away while the five others were saved.

On Monday morning, the bodies of Faraz, 20, and Osama, 19, were recovered and handed over to their relatives in North Nazimabad and Federal B Area, respectively, after fulfilling legal formalities.

The relatives of the victims alleged that there was no lifeguard available at the beach while a ban on swimming was also not being enforced. SHO Iqbal admitted that there was a ban on swimming during this season but it was not possible for them to implement it in an area spread over 44 kilometres where hundreds of thousands of people arrived in thousands of vehicles.

He said that during early morning lifeguards were not available on the beach.

He advised people not to risk their lives by swimming, particularly during this rough season when seawater inundated even roads at Hawkesbay.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2018