HARIPUR: A schoolboy was killed while 20 were injured when a school van plunged into ravine near Shah Kabal village in Khanpur tehsil here on Friday.

Khanpur police said a van carrying 21 schoolchildren from different schools was on way to Shah Kabal, a hilly village located near the border of Islamabad. When it was about half a kilometre away from its destination, the driver lost control over the steering while negotiating a blind turn, and the vehicle fell into several feet deep gorge, killing a student later identified as Zahid, a 9th grader in government high school for boys, Najaf Pur, while 20 others, including girls, were injured.

The local rescue workers removed the dead and injured to Khanpur tehsil headquarters hospital where, according to hospital sources, four students of government high school for girls, Choee, and three boys were admitted for treatment, while 13 other slightly injured were discharged after first aid.

Meanwhile, a labourer died under the heavy mass of sand while loading a trolley in a remote village of Ghazi tehsil, police said on Friday.

Witnesses and police said some labourers were busy loading sand on a tractor trolley in Hasan Bai village, when a heap of sand fell on them burying one of them alive.

The rescue workers retrieved the body after an effort of 30 minutes.

The deceased was identified as Hayat Khan. Police and area people said the provincial government had imposed ban on illegal mining and collection of sand from Hasan Pur village, but the tractor trolley owners and drivers flouted the ban.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2018