Controversy surrounds children’s drowning in canal

Relatives term it accident; Rescue 1122 says kids’ mother hurled them into water

PAKPATTAN:

A woman and one of her children were rescued from 3L Canal near Chak Nawabwala on Tarkhani Road on Saturday by some people present near the venue while two of the woman’s other children died in the incident.

The incident is mired in controversy. It could not be said for sure whether it was a suicide attempt on part of the children’s mother or just an accident.

Rescue 1122 sources told The Express Tribune that the woman, 25, a resident of 345 EB, had hurled her children into the canal and then she herself jumped into it in a bid to kill herself and her children.

They alleged that the woman had been fed up with domestic disputes and decided to end her life and that of her children.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the people who risked their own lives and jumped into the canal to save the family succeeded only partially because one of the three children drowned before he could be brought back to safety while the other died later in the hospital.

The eldest child was four-years-old while the youngest two.

The deceased children’s mother and one of their siblings survived the tragedy while four-year-old Inaya died at the hospital and two-year-old Waleed drowned in the canal.

Waleed’s body was later retrieved from the canal by the rescue workers.

The SHO of Saddar Arifwala Police Station, Chaudhry Waqas Ahmed, told The Express Tribune that the family of the woman refused to bring any charges against the woman, insisting that it was an accident.

The woman’s family told the police that the children had accidentally fallen into the canal and the woman dived into it to save them.

Therefore, the woman had not been charged with any misdemeanor, he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2022.