KOHAT: The parents of the 58 seminary children, who died in a boat capsize in Tanda Dam on January 29, have demanded of the caretaker chief minister to award strict punishment to those responsible for the incident.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, they said the officials nominated in the FIRs were yet to be arrested. They said if such a horrific incident had occurred in any civilized society the law would have taken its course immediately.

They said the officials seemed to be above the law, and urged the caretaker chief minister and the chief secretary to provide justice to the shocked parents by taking action against those responsible.

Shah Mehmood, a member of Sons of Kohat, a mouthpiece of a dozen organisations, who also lost his two sons to the disaster, regretted that no arrests had been made so far despite the registration of FIRs against those responsible for the tragedy.

He said executive engineer, sub-divisional officer and a sub-engineer of the irrigation department had been nominated in FIRs by the caretaker government on January 30, holding them responsible for the gruesome tragedy as there existed no standard operating procedures at the dam for the board riders.

He said a petition had also been filed in court against the Kohat deputy commissioner for criminal negligence as he was the district administrative head, but no inquiry had been initiated against him.

BAN: Deputy commissioner Furqan Ashraf has imposed the Section 144 banning boating and bathing in dams for three months.

A statement issued here on Monday said violators of the ban would be penalised under Section 188 of PPC.

Separately, during a crackdown on anti-social elements, the police arrested 25 drug peddlers on Monday.

The police also arrested 10 proclaimed offenders, their five facilitators, besides 458 suspects. Twelve persons were held for firing in the air, according to a statement.

The statement said six Kalashnikovs, a kalakov, 56 pistols, seven rifles, three shotguns, 683 grams of ice drug, 120 grams of heroin, 32 kilograms of hashish, and thousands of cartridges were also recovered.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2023