Tragedy: Infant drowns in Swat River

Support wires of cable car carrying mother and child snap.

MINGORA:

A nine-month-old child drowned in Swat River when a cable car’s support wires  snapped in Dadahara area of Kabal tehsil, Swat on Saturday.

A woman identified as Nasim Bibi jumped after her infant offspring following which locals also rushed to rescue the mother and child. However, though the mother was pulled out alive, search for the infant is still under way.

Initial reports suggested the woman jumped into the river with her son to commit suicide. Rahimabad police later took the woman into custody where she was interrogated over the suicide attempt reports. However, locals of the area said the woman did not attempt to kill the baby and take her own life but jumped in to save her child.



“The child fell in the river and she jumped after him. People nearby rushed to the site and saved the woman but could not find the child,” said Iqbal, a resident of Panjigram, where the cable car was heading.

Hundreds of cable cars were installed after several bridges were washed away in the 2010 floods. However, many people have fallen into the river and drowned as a result of the cable snapping.

Four years on, the bridges are yet to be rebuilt. “Locals installed cable cars instead to connect Swat with the rest of the areas, but hundreds of people have drowned,” Zahir Khan, a local rights activist, told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 15^th, 2014.