Two brothers drown in Garhshankar village pond

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, April 16

Two brothers drowned in a water-filled pond built in the fields of Dhada Khurd village in Garhshankar’s Mahilpur block here on Saturday.

The Garhshankar DSP and the Mahilpur SHO reached the spot as soon as the incident was reported. The bodies of both the victims were kept in the mortuary of Civil Hospital, Garhshankar, for a post-mortem report.

A resident of Chandoi (under the Islam Nagar police station) in Bandaun district of Uttar Pradesh, Chandra Pal, father of the victims, said he had been living with his five children in the fields of Lakha Singh, sarpanch of Paldi village, for 25 years.

He said around 1 pm, his two sons — 11-year-old Ajay and 9-year-old Gobind Ram — had gone to a choe (a rainy water drain) at Dhada Khurd village to get dry firewood. He said when his children did not return till late evening, he started looking for them. He saw their clothes lying on the banks of the pond, but both the children were not visible anywhere around, so he searched them in the pond with the help of people.

The bodies of both children were found sunken under water. Garhshankar DSP Narinder Singh Aujla and Mahilpur SHO Balwinder Pal said the bodies had to be pulled out with great effort. He said a case was registered on the statement of Miratak’s father and the bodies were kept in the mortuary of the Civil Hospital for a postmortem.

Chandrapal told the police that Ajay was studying in Class VI and Gobind in Class IV of the government school at Paldi.

Paldi village sarpanch Lakha Singh has demanded the registration of a case in this regard against those involved in illegal mining. He alleged that from the place where the children drowned, mining had been done up to 40 feet deep against the permissible limits.