Local police have arrested a man after he allegedly admitted to throwing his three children into the Upper Jhelum Canal in the Mangla police station area, with divers and Rescue 1122 teams continuing a search operation to recover the children.
Police have said that the man, Raja Zeeshan, went into hiding after the incident. Mangla police later arrested him, after which, according to police, he confessed to throwing the children into the canal.
The children were identified as eight-year-old Fajar Zeeshan, five-year-old Umar Zeeshan and two-and-a-half-year-old Noor Fatima.
Police stated that Zeeshan took the children in his car on the pretext of taking them for an outing. According to the preliminary account, he took them out, fed them and later threw them into the canal.
Police also stated that Zeeshan, who is a drug user, had been married for nine years. The police account added that he had a domestic dispute with his wife around six months ago, after which she left for her parents’ home. The couple reconciled a few days ago, and Zeeshan brought her back home.
Following the incident, Jhelum police launched an investigation after receiving information that the children may have been thrown into the canal. District Police Officer (DPO) Jhelum Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shafiq Ahmed Chaudhry said that police were conducting further investigation and trying to establish what had happened to the children.
Police also called divers to the scene to search for the children in the Upper Jhelum Canal, with the search operation continuing.
Meanwhile, Rescue 1122 teams from Azad Jammu and Kashmir joined the search operation in the Mirpur area after receiving information that the children may have been thrown into a canal.
District Emergency Officer Mirpur-AJK Sardar Najam said that rescue personnel were searching the canal around Kharri Sharif in Mirpur to locate and retrieve the children.
