MANSEHRA: Seven people, including six children, drowned when a rickshaw skidded off the road and plunged into the Indus River in Kamila area of Upper Kohistan on Wednesday evening.

Mohammad Minhaj, an official at the Dasu police control room, told reporters that the three-wheeler carrying six children was on way to Zaid Lahar area in Upper Kohistan. He said the accident occurred due to over-speeding.

The official said divers were facing difficulty while tracing the bodies due to strong currents. He said the victims were identified as driver Mohammad Ibrahim, three siblings, Zahida Bibi and her two brothers Mohammad Zahid and Mohammad Zaid, two brothers Rehmat Walli and Rehmat Ghani, and another boy, Rafiullah.

Meanwhile, two people were killed and 17 injured when a vehicle plunged into a ravine in Simodara area of Lower Kohistan on Wednesday.

SHO Pattan police station Khalilur Rehman told reporters that the vehicle was on way to Pattan, the district headquarters of Lower Kohistan from Simodar area.

The locals shifted the injured to the civil hospital, where doctors pronounced Saiful Muluk and Mohammad Aslam dead.

The injured were referred to Ayub Medical Complex Hospital in Abbottabad in critical.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2020