KHUSHAB: Four teenagers were rescued and the search for six others is continued after a boat capsized in Noorpur Thal tehsil of Khushab on Tuesday, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) stated.
In statement, a spokesperson for the Punjab PDMA said the rescue team immediately rushed to the location and began searching for the teenagers, who were all said to be between 14 and 16 years old.
According to a PDMA spokesperson, the incident occurred in Tehsil Noorpur Thal where 10 children drowned in water after a boat capsized.
“Four youths have been rescued and the search for the rest is on,” the statement said.
All of the teenagers belonged to the rural village of Pelowaince.
Among the drowned teenagers were two siblings: Samiullah, Azizullah, and Aftab, Waqas, Asad Ali and Shoaib Akram.
It added that Punjab PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia also contacted Khushab Deputy Commissioner Zeeshan Shabbir Rana and directed the district administration to speed up the operation.
“Strict legal action should be taken against those who put youth on the boat without life jackets,” the statement quoted DG Kathia as saying.
In April, eight persons drowned when a boat capsized in the Indus River near Kund Park in the Nowshera district on the second day of Eidul Fitr.
Separately, a woman and five children were killed after a boat ferrying them across a swollen river capsized in Indian-held Kashmir.
Six members of a family — two women and four children — drowned in the Jhelum near Malakwal Town of Mandi Bahauddin district in May.
