Bandipora: A 15-year-old boy died of drowning in a stream in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Wednesday, Police said.
His body was retrieved several hours after he drowned in the Madhumati stream.The deceased boy has been identified as Zahid Magray, son of Masood Ahmad of Ajar, Bandipora.
Police said that the boy along with his friends had gone swimming in the stream on Tuesday evening and did not return home till late at night after which the family started looking for him.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, Station House Officer (SHO) Bandipora, Ashiq Hussain said, “After frantically searching for him, the family was led to the house of his friends in the middle of the night after an acquaintance informed them of seeing him with them. His friends told them that Zahid didn’t return to the riverside after taking a dip following which they left.”
Hussain said that this information broke the back of his family as their suspicion about Zahid’s drowning in the stream grew manifold following which they called in for help.
He said Police teams along with SDRF and later MARCOS were called in who began search along with the locals.
The officials said that the authorities at the Kishanganga Hydel Power Project were also requested to cut the downstream flow of the project waters into the stream to help trace the body at the earliest.
“After hours of the search operation, locals and other teams traced the body from the spot where the boys had the bath the previous evening,” they said.
Officials said that after medico-legal formalities, the body was handed over to the devastated family.