Speeding : Two bikers drown in Jhelum River

MUZAFFARABAD: Two motorcyclists skidded off a road and fell into the River Jhelum near Nayli Bridge in Chanari, some 52 kilometres from here. According to police, the two motorcyclists, who were identified as Attiqur Rehman and Shahbaz Rashid, residents of Awan Patti, were on their way to Chanari from Hattian Bala, when their motorbike skidded off the road due to speeding and they fell into the river. Rescue teams and relatives of the victims continued search for their bodies, but were unable to retrieve them till the filing of this report.  Hattian Bala Station House Officer Javed Abbasi said that the river was in flood hampering the rescue operation. “We have alerted Azad Pattan, Dadyal and Mirpur police,” he told The Express Tribune. He said that usually bodies are found on the river banks or in Mangla Dam as strong tides of Jhelum and Neelum rivers always sweep the bodies downstream.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2014.