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21 feared dead as another boat sinks off River Kabul

PESHAWAR: As many as 21 people drowned, mostly children and women, when a boat capsized in river Kabul near Akora Khattak on Friday afternoon.

According to deputy commissioner, Nowshera, Abdul Qader Khattak, the ill-fated persons from Camp Koroona had gone to attend a wedding ceremony in village Mashak Ali Muhammad in front of Akora Khattak across the river. After return from the wedding ceremony at about 4 pm, 32 persons boarded the boat and thus overloaded it.

While nearing the bank of the river, the boat was caught by cyclone imbalancing it. However, the jawans of the nearby Army Bridge Camp when saw the boat drowning, rushed to scene and succeeded in recovering 10 dead bodies including seven children and three women while another 11 succeeded in reaching the bank safely.

The deputy commissioner said that the bodies of 11 are still missing.

The Army, teams civil administration and monitoring cell are engaged in recovering the missing persons and a team of divers have been called from Mangla. APP