Teacher dies as boat capsizes in dam

Boat struck an underwater rock and capsized, owing to low water level in Khanpur Lake.

HARIPUR:

A female schoolteacher died while four others were injured when a boat carrying 28 schoolchildren and eight teachers overturned in the Khanpur Dam Lake on Tuesday.

According to Rescue 1122 spokesman, a group of 34 people, including 28 students and eight teachers from a private school of Rawalpindi organised a picnic at Khanpur Lake where they hired a boat to visit the lake.

Owing to the low water level in Khanpur Lake when the boat reached the mid of the lake it struck an underwater rock and capsized.

Fortunately, all the persons on board were having life jackets which saved them from drowning except one female teacher Saliha.

Rescue 1122 Khanpur team rescued all students and teachers from the lake water and immediately shifted them to Tehsil Headquarter Hospital Khanpur where the female teacher Saliha died while the condition of four children was stated to be critical. Later, a 15-year-old female student was shifted to PMO from THQ Khanpur when doctors declared her situation critical.

The body of the teacher has been handed over to her family after completing legal formalities. Haripur assistant commissioner has ordered an inquiry of the incident.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan Tuesday expressed grief and sorrow over the capsizing of a boat carrying teachers and students to enjoy picnic in Khanpur Dam of Hazara.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2022.