LOWER DIR: Three children drowned in a rain-fed pond in Maina Bhatan area of Adenzai tehsil here on Thursday, residents and Rescue 1122 officials said.

They said the children aged five to 10 were bathing in the pond when they drowned.

The Rescue 1122 divers and local volunteers rescued a child alive, and fished out bodies of two children identified as Shayan, 6, and Zuhaib, 5.

Body of the fourth child was yet to be recovered even though a Rescue 1122 team dried up the pond with the help of heavy machinery.

Separately, assistant commissioner Tahir Ali Khattak, additional assistant commissioner Sadiq Ahmad Mohmand along with officials of the livestock department inspected milk shops in Timergara and Samarbagh and booked and fined seven dealers for selling adulterated milk.

The officials also checked coronavirus vaccination certificates from the milk sellers.

Also in the day, encroachments were removed from the Munda Bazaar during a campaign led by the additional assistant commissioner, Samarbagh.

The officials warned the shopkeepers of imposing heavy fines on them if they allowed pushcarts, fruit sellers and car parking in front of their shops in future.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2021