2 brothers among 4 drown in Beas during Baisakhi outing

Four youths, aged between 17 and 20 years, drowned while taking a dip in the Beas at Kishansinghwala village in Kapurthala on Sunday. All of them were residents of Peerewal village here. Two of them were brothers.

The deceased were identified as Arshdeep Singh (17), Vishal (20), Jaspal Singh and Gurpreet Singh. They reportedly went to the river on the occasion of Baisakhi and ventured into deep waters after bathing in a shallow area.

A rescue operation was launched by villagers and relatives after the incident. Arshdeep and Jasal Singh were taken out of the river by villagers and rushed to the hospital, where the doctors declared them dead on arrival. Arshdeep’s brother Vishal and Gurpreet Singh are still missing.

Deceased brothers’ grandfather Barjinder Singh was the first one to respond. “All boys were from Peerewal. We rushed to rescue them when one of them was caught in deep waters. Other three boys were also swept away while trying to rescue him. We were able to take out Arshdeep and Jaspal Singh. They were taken to a hospital, but we couldn’t save them. Around 25 villagers participated in the rescue operation. Two boys remain untraced even now,” he said.

Kapurthala Tehsildar Gurcharan Singh said NDRF teams were trying to trace the two missing boys. Fattudhinga SHO Sonamdeep Kaur said two youths were taken out from the river and taken to the Civil Hospital, Kapurthala, where they were declared dead on arrival.

Punjab