MUZAFFARABAD: Four teenaged students drowned in Neelum River here on Saturday while taking bath to beat the heat, police and witnesses said.

Adeel Afzal, 17, son of Muhammad Afzal, Yasir Bashir, 17 son of Bashirullah, Basit Mughal, 18, son of Muhammad Roshan and Shahid Pervez, 19, son of Pervez Iqbal, who belonged to Kel area in the upper belt of Neelum valley, were studying in first and second year in some private and state-run colleges here.

They were living in private hostels - three in Chehla Bandi, where the incident occurred, and one in Chattar neighbourhood of Muzaffarabad.

Witnesses said the quartet came to the river from its right bank and as two of them lost balance while bathing the other two tried to rescue them, but all four drowned.

Trained rescuers from Jammu Kashmir United Movement (JKUM), who were equipped with the diving gear and other apparatus, swam through the deep waters to find and retrieve the victims.

However, they were able to fish out only two bodies, identified as Adeel Afzal and Shahid Pervez, after some time.

The rescue operation was shelved at dusk and would be resumed early tomorrow morning, said SHO Abdul Wajid Alvi.

Ironically, the AJK government has raised institutions like Rescue 1122 and SDMA to provide rescue services to the people struck by accidents, but in video footage that went viral on social media only the JKUM volunteers were seen taking dips in the icy river in search of the bodies.

SHO Alvi said though the discharge of water in Neelum River is quite low due to its diversion at Nauseri, some of its sites were deep and dangerous even for the trained swimmers.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2023