BAJAUR/MANSEHRA/HARIPUR: Nine people, including three tourists, were killed in separate incidents here during Eid days.

Four people lost life and eight suffered injuries after two boats they rode capsized in Raghagan small dam in Bajaur tribal district on Wednesday.

Officials said two boats carried around 15 picnickers and they sunk after developing technical faults.

The personnel of Rescue 1122 and police recovered 12 people and shifted them to the district headquarters hospital, Khar.

Balakot police arrest nine visitors for assault

The doctors declared four of them dead.

Amjad Khan of Rescue 1122 in Khar told Dawn that the water entered the boat after it developed ‘some serious technical issue’ in the middle of the dam.

He added that the boat’s operator called to the management for help.

The official said a boat was immediately sent in to evacuate picnickers but the panic among passengers threw both boats off balance before they capsized.

The officials said most incident victims belonged to Salarzai region and the three deceased belonged to a family.

Boating in the dam was reportedly banned a month ago.

Meanwhile, three tourists were killed and four injured in separate incidents in Kaghan valley on Friday.

The incident occurred as a jeep carrying six residents of Lahore skidded off a road in Sharan area and plunged into a deep ravine.

A man and a woman were killed instantly.

The residents shifted the bodies and four injured to the Balakot civil hospital, whose doctors referred the injured to the Ayub Medical Complex, Abbottabad, due to critical condition.

In another incident, a boy, Obaid, drowned in the Kunhar River.

The police said Mohammad Obaid fell into the river after being hit by a speeding motorcycle on the roadside.

They said search for the body was under way.

Meanwhile, the Balakot police arrested nine visitors from Swabi for injuring tourists and local traders with daggers and batons.

The police said the accused attacked Zainul Abdeen, his brother Binyamin and Obaid, tourists from Punjab, after hitting their car.

The local traders were also hit by them for coming to their rescue. The police held the attackers as they tried to flee.

In another incident, two teenage brothers drowned in the Indus River near Tarbela Dam, the Ghazi police said on Friday.

The police identified the two as Talha, 17, and Khizar, 15, the residents of Rustum area in Mardan district.

Witnesses told the police that the incident occurred as one of the two brothers slipped into the deep water while bathing in the Indus near Khalo village of Ghazi tehsil.

They said the other brother also jumped into the river to rescue the drowning one.

The villagers recovered both from the water and shifted them to the tehsil headquarters hospital, where Talha was declared dead and Khizar was admitted.

The doctors said the condition of Khizar was out of danger.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2021