CHAKWAL: A man, his wife and younger brother drowned in a dam in Kot Iqbal, 24 km to the north of Chakwal City, on Sunday,

According to villagers and officials, 27-year-old Jamal Yousuf, a Pakistan Army official, had come to visit his native village with his 24-year-old wife Zoyab Kiran and 25-year-old brother Salman Yousuf and had only just come Saturday evening from Rawalpindi.

They went to picnic at a dam some two kilometres from the village for which their brother Usman Yousaf also accompanied them.

“Zoyab slipped and fell into the dam when she was trying to wash her feet. Jamal jumped into the dam to try and save her,” said Assistant Sub-inspector Dhudial Police, Abdur Rehman.

When Jamal started drowning as well, his brother Salman jumped in to save them both, he said.

Usman then called home to tell his family what had happened after which his family members and villagers went to the dam.

“The three bodies were taken out of the water an hour later by the villagers,” a member of the family, Qaiser Abbas told Dawn.

The bodies were taken to District Headquarters Hospital by Rescue 1122 personnel. The family had to wait the whole day to be handed over the bodies.

“We had to establish the cause of death, which was possible only with witness statements or a post-mortem,” SHO Mussarat Shah said. The bodies were handed over to the family after the cause of death was established as ‘drowning’ after villagers gave their statements.

The funeral for the three victims will be held Monday. Jamal and Zoyab married six months ago and Jamal was posted in Kharian.

A few years ago, two teenagers had also drowned in this dam, which his being used as a fish farm and five people have drowned in dams across the district over the last six days.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2017