Five girls die in Peshawar as slabs covering well cave in

PESHAWAR: Five young girls were killed and eight other children sustained injuries on Tuesday when slabs placed to cover a well inside a house in Pishtakhara Bala caved in.Rescue workers rushed to the spot after a caller informed them about the tragic incident, an official said. Most of those killed or wounded were girls.
The provincial government has ordered a probe into the incident. The owner of the house was taken into custody after a case was lodged. “It was an old well that had been covered with concrete slabs. The cover made of slabs caved in under pressure when the children, who had come to the house for learning the Holy Quran, were sitting on the structure,” said Superintendent of Police (SP), Peshawar Cantonment, Faisal Shehzad, who along with SSP Operations Mian Saeed and other officers supervised the rescue operation.
The official said that up to 13 children, mostly females, fell into the well, now being used for sewerage water. “Eight kids were rescued alive while five died,” he added.Those killed in the incident were identified as daughters of Badam Gul, Wali, Mausam Khan, Alam and Major. The locals said a large number of villagers and rescue workers rushed to the spot in Pishtakhara Bala, a suburban locality of Peshawar, and made hectic efforts to save the children. Manu complained that the machinery reached the spot quite late and even then did not function for long. The MPA from the area, Fazal Ilahi, said the rescue work was delayed due to the traffic rush in Peshawar. The eight rescued kids were shifted to a hospital for treatment.