JI leader drowns while saving a student

Local police, eyewitnesses say Shaji jumped into river to save Sufiyan, a 10th grader at Usman Public School.

File photo of Kunhar River. PHOTO: INP

BALAKOT:


A former lawmaker of the Jamaat-e-Islami and the party’s sitting deputy chief for Karachi, Nasrullah Shaji, drowned while trying to save his drowning student in the Kunhar River on Monday.



According to the local police and eyewitnesses, Shaji jumped into the river to save Sufiyan, a 10th grader at Usman Public School. However, both were swept away by the strong current in the river. Local divers and police could not fish out the bodies.

The police quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Shaji was on an excursion to Balakot with 24 students and four fellow teachers from Usman Public School. Sufiyan was taking a photograph of his teachers and fellow students on the bank of the Kunhar River when he tripped into water.

In a bid to rescue his drowning student, Shaji jumped after Sufiyan but both were swept away by the strong flow in the river. The police said that local divers, activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Shabab-e-Milli scoured for the bodies but the heavy flow in the river hampered the search.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2014.
Load Next Story