Fatal mistake: Two drown while swimming in the Canal

Five-year-old drowns in Ravi River after boat capsizes.

LAHORE: Two people drowned in the Lahore Branch Canal and another in the River Ravi on Monday.

According to Garden Town police, Ali Zarnab, 20, a resident of Kareemabad, and Hassam Iqbal, 19, from Township drowned in the canal near Ferozepur Road.

“Both dived from a bridge. Apparently, their heads hit some hard object and they fainted on impact. After sometime, people bathing nearby noticed that they had not resurfaced after the dive. They started looking for them and alerted policemen who were standing nearby,” the police officer said.



“Before the arrival of rescuers, the policemen too tried to fish them out. However, they could not be found,” he said.

He said that Rescue 1122 divers fished out the bodies after a 10-minute search. They were taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival.

In another incident, a five-year-old boy drowned in Ravi River after a boat capsized there. A Rescue 1122 official said that three children were travelling in the boat when it sank. “Bystanders rescued two of them. However, Akmal was carried away by the waves and drowned,” he said.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Tariq Zaman, personal staff officer to the DCO, said that a swimming ban was in place at most sections of the canal. “Out of the 25-kilometre long Lahore Canal, the ban has not been imposed at five places: Harbanspura Bridge, Mughalpura Bridge, Jallo, Thokar Niaz Beg and Ferozepur Road bridge,” he said.

“The place where the two young men died today was open for swimming because the water there is not too deep. They did not drown. They died after their heads hit something in the canal,” he said.

He said that Civil Defence divers and rescuers were present at the spot at the time.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2015.