MUZAFFARABAD: A sixth grade student and his sister drowned in a water channel of Neelum valley on Friday.

Akhtar Ayub, an official based in Athmuqam, told Dawn by telephone that the incident occurred after Friday prayers near Dudgayyan village when the victims - Ehsan, 12, and Nimra, 6, - were accompanying their mother who was washing clothes along the raging Jangran Nullah.

“As Nimra slipped into the channel, Ehsan tried to rescue her but in vain and both were swept away by the violent current,” Mr Ayub said.

The boy was recovered alive some one kilometre downstream the site of the incident and shifted to a nearby health facility but did not survive.

The young girl was also presumed dead but her body could not be fished out till late evening, he added.

Jagran Nullah which merges into Neelum River in the town of Kundal Shahi has claimed many lives in the past mostly because of the carelessness of residents as well as visitors.

In May 2018, some six students from Pakistan were killed after falling into this nullah from a footbridge that failed to withstand their load.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2022