RAWALPINDI: A scavenger slipped into the water and drowned while collecting miscellaneous objects from a pond in Bahria Town Phase VII near Shaheen Chowk on Wednesday.

The emergency services said, while quoting eye witnesses, that a group of five scavengers were collecting objects from the water surface, when one of them was sitting on a thermocol sheet that slipped into the water and drowned.

Later, a team of Rescue 1122, including swimmers and divers, reached the site and began searching for the drowning boy. Subsequently, the body of the 17-year-old victim was retrieved by the rescue team and handed over to his heirs.

Meanwhile, two high-quality surveillance cameras of the Safe City Project and one UPS system installed in the Khayaban-e-Sirsyed area were stolen by some unidentified thieves.

Talah Afzal, who had been working on the Punjab Safe City Project, lodged an FIR with the police, saying that his technical team was working on the installation of CCTV cameras at near Khayaban-e-Sirsyed when they noticed that two cameras installed on a pole and a UPS had been stolen.

He said that the stolen cameras were worth Rs170,000, and the value of the UPS was Rs90,000. He sought police help in tracing the clue to the thieves and recovering the stolen cameras.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2025