KARACHI: A boy drowned off the Sandspit beach on Sunday morning while his brother was saved by lifeguards, according to police and Edhi Foundation.

Mauripur SHO Liaquat Hayat said the boys belonged to a family from Shah Faisal Colony which was there on a picnic.

He added that the incident occurred at around 11am.

“Munir, 13, was saved by the lifeguards posted there but Maisam, 8, could not be saved,” he said.

The police officer further said a ban was in place on swimming but the picnickers did not listen to the warnings of police.

The SHO claimed that the police made regular announcements on loudspeakers and stopped people from swimming.

“If we get hard with picnickers, they take our pictures and make our videos, and share them on social media,” he said.

However, some picnickers alleged that the policemen appeared more interested in extracting money rather than implementing the ban.

A picnicker told Dawn that the policemen charged up to Rs500 to allow a vehicle to go to the beach.

Also on Sunday, the body of a boy named Shahzaib, 13, who had drowned two days ago, was found on the shore.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2018