MANSEHRA: Three labourers drowned and two sustained critical injuries when a makeshift wooden bridge erected on a stream broke in Zaidkhar area of Upper Kohistan on Tuesday.

“We have fished out three bodies, and two seriously injured labourers from Zaidkhar stream and shifted them to a nearby health facility,” Naqibullah, a head constable at Kamila police station, said.

The labourers, according to witnesses, were shifting wooden beams chopped off from a nearby forest to a road through the bridge when it collapsed.

The police rushed onto the spot and fished out the bodies of Akbar Shadoo belonging to Swat, Span Jehan and Shairzaman hailing from Kandia Valley of Upper Kohistan, and shifted them to the Dasu Civil Hospital.

The police also retrieved Ghani Khan and Said Nabi from the stream and shifted them to the same health facility, where their condition is stated to be critical.

Naqibullah said the wood was legally chopped off from local forests.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2024