Ganderbal, Sep 7, KNT: Two persons, including 19-year-old Ishtiyaq Ahmad Khai, son of Mohammad Sharif Khai, a resident of Thune Kangan, and a girl, daughter of Mumtaz Ahmad of Hari Gani, drowned in a power canal in the Thune area of Kangan in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on Monday.
Soon after information about the incident was received, personnel from Kangan Police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local residents reached the spot and launched a search operation to trace the two persons.
The bodies of both persons were subsequently recovered from the power canal.
The circumstances leading to the incident remain unclear, and authorities have not yet established how the two persons came to be in the power canal.
The incident comes against the backdrop of several drowning and body-recovery cases reported from the power canal in the Thune-Kangan belt this year.
In February, two brothers from Thune Kangan fell into the canal. One was rescued, while the other, identified as Tanveer Ahmad Tedwa, was swept away after entering the canal while attempting to rescue his brother. His body was recovered after a search operation.
In May, the body of a 19-year-old girl who had been missing for several days was recovered from the canal at Thune after a search operation covering the canal stretch between Sumbal and Kangan.
In June, two persons drowned in the power canal in the Gund area of Kangan, with rescue teams later recovering both bodies from different locations along the canal.
Earlier in April, an unidentified man’s body was also recovered from the power canal at Thune.
The repeated incidents have previously drawn attention to the risks associated with the power canal. A 2021 report had cited local concerns over the depth of the canal and recorded several drowning deaths involving teenagers in the preceding years.
Further details regarding the circumstances of the incident are awaited. [KNT]
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