CHITRAL: A young man lost his life while attempting to cross the Chitral River on jeep.

A companion of the deceased, Salman Ahmed, was making a video of the stunt which showed the driver racing the jeep at the riverbed for some minutes before entering the river at Naghar village near Lowari Pass.

The video shows the jeep disappearing in the water and the driver ejecting from it and started swimming. The man made desperate attempt to get to the other end, but to his bad luck, he was consumed by the water as he chose the wrong direction of a steep hillock against rushing waters.

Sub-divisional police officer of Drosh Iqbal Karim told Dawn that the body of the man was yet to be retrieved as efforts were continuing till filing of this report. He said the companion of the deceased making video was identified as Izhar Ahmed of Ashurate village who told the police that he had taken a lift from the deceased while coming to Drosh. He told the police that when they reached the Naghar village the driver diverted the vehicle to the riverbed and asked him to film him while he crossed the river.

The deceased was a student of final year in MA (tourism) in Chitral University, and was a member of 4x4 Club, a Chitral-based organisation of adventurists.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2019