Boy drowns in Dir

DIR: A 12-year-old boy died when he fell from a log bridge into River Panjkora at Biyar, an area of Kohistan valley in Upper Dir district on Saturday.

Local residents and police said that the body of Naveed Khan was recovered from the river later on. In a similar incident, a woman and her daughter had drowned in the river while crossing the river through the same log bridge in Biyar. Locals said they had been facing difficulties in absence of a proper bridge, which had been washed away in the 2010 floods.

Ikramullah, a resident of Biyar, said the current log bridge is risky. Another resident said the wood bridges that they had made at various places on the river had also got damaged in the recent flood. He said that they had to set up temporary bridges because the reconstruction work on the destroyed bridge had been suspended for the last four years. The residents demanded the authorities to expedite work on the project to prevent further loss of lives.