Rescue 1122 response faced nearly 40-minute delay; district emergency officer was AWOL, man recruited as diver was “afraid of water”.
• Rescue 1122 response faced nearly 40-minute delay; district emergency officer was AWOL, man recruited as diver was ‘afraid of water’
• Flood protection wall found encroaching on river bed, gave tourists ‘false sense of security’
• Provincial Inspection Team advocates inquiries over illegal constructions in Swat since 2010
PESHAWAR: It was a race against time: every second, every minute counted as the lives of over a dozen tourists stranded in the midst of a raging deluge hung by a thread.
“The window of time was narrow”, noted the three-member inquiry committee in its report on the tragic drowning of thirteen vacationers at Khwazakhela, Swat.
What unfolded subsequently was a tragedy of unspeakable proportions, with men, women and children being swept away by raging waters as onlookers watched helplessly from the riverbank.
The committee’s report presents a detailed, minute-by-minute account of the incident, incorporating statements from officials, eyewitnesses, and survivors, as well as contents of WhatsApp messages exchanged during the crisis.
Based on the efforts by the Provincial Inspection Team (PIT) to uncover the facts behind the tragedy of June 27, the provincial government released a statement summarising the committee’s findings. However, the devil lies in the details.
The 63-page report reveals systematic failure, the highest levels of incompetence, inefficiency, criminal negligence and even land grabbing, that led to the loss of precious human lives. In hindsight, had the appropriate systems been in place, those poor souls might have been saved.
The report noted with concern “deeply embedded failures in disaster preparedness, regulatory enforcement, institutional oversight and emergency response mechanisms.”
Failures
Rescue 1122 emerges as the primary accused in this tragic incident: the district emergency officer was absent from duty and had left the station without prior approval, leaving an operational vacuum.
Furthermore, two individuals recruited as drivers were informally performing the duties of divers. In a shocking revelation, pointing to politically-motivated recruitments in this critical life-saving department, one of the divers was said to be afraid of water.
“Recruitment practices appear to be flawed, with non-technical individuals appointed to specialised roles. One such individual, reportedly hydrophobic, was appointed as a diver”, the report noted.
One driver failed to report for duty on that eventful day, but was still marked present, while the other did not show up at all.
The water rescue vehicle and ambulance were dispatched without a diver. Only after realising the gravity of the situation did the ambulance leave the site to pick up one of the “divers” — who was actually a driver.
The staff also discovered the rope was too short and that they didn’t have the throw-gun, life jackets and floatation equipment.
In a crisis where every minute was counted, 38 minutes were wasted back and forth to pick up divers and arrange jaala (net) and a local rubber boat, which took another six minutes to assemble and move about a kilometre upstream for launch.
The call recording system at the Rescue-1122 in Swat, had been “deliberately” turned off. The official in charge claimed it was done on orders from his senior, to protect equipment from lightning and thunderstorms. However, the committee said it was done to avoid any post-event accountability.
The Early Warning System was also not functional, while the official responsible for recording the river flow levels delayed reporting by four hours – during which the water flow surged from 6,738 cusecs to a staggering 77,782 cusecs.
The secretary of the irrigation department informed the committee that out of the 131 gauges installed throughout the province, only 22 were equipped with a telemetry system.
Shockingly, the telemetry gauges at Khwazakhela and Shamozai — both critical for flood forecasting — were found non-functional at the time of the tragic incident.
Encroachment
The committee also detailed gross negligence on the part of a major contractor working on an Asian Development Bank-funded Emergency Flood Assistance Project (EFAP). The contractor had constructed a bund roughly 200 feet upstream from the site of the tragedy.
This temporary diversion gave tourists the false impression that the area was outside the active river channel — which it was not.
“The bund was raised using loose riverbed material during peak monsoon season in blatant violation of basic engineering norms and safety protocols. No safety signage, barriers, or cordoning were installed at construction site.”
Further, the flood protection wall was found to encroach deep into the riverbed, narrowing the river’s natural flow. The committee cited locals claiming, this appeared to a deliberate attempt to grab precious land.
The wall spanned approximately 850 meters. If it intruded even 100 feet into the riverbed, the reclaimed area would equal about 278,880 square feet. At the prevailing market rate of Rs20,000 per square foot, this translates into an estimated Rs5.57 billion worth of potentially commercial land.
The committee found that the land revenue records had been altered and pages changed.
“The sheer scale of financial incentive, coupled with a clear violation of zoning regulations and river protection ordinances, raises serious concerns about speculative land encroachment under the guise of public infrastructure,” the report stated.
The committee apportioned the blame of illegal encroachment on the district administration and the Tehsil Municipal Administration for ignoring and facilitating regularisation of illegal structures since 2010.
Administration
The committee further said the district administration failed to initiate or coordinate rescue efforts, while the police did not take timely action to keep tourists away from the river.
The tourism department, too, was found to be entirely absent. It failed to regulate or manage tourist safety, did not licence hotels as required, and its helpline remained unknown and unused.
The hotel, which was used by the tourists to access the river, the committee said, was constructed in clear violation by encroaching on the riverbed without No Objection Certificate (NOC) or approved building plan.
While recommending a slew of recommendations to introduce regulatory and legislative framework to overcome judicial restraint, arrest illegal encroachment, mining and overcome institutional weaknesses and lapses, the committee also called for inquiry against all DCs in Swat and TMA officers posted in Babuzai since 2010 and other officers.
A detailed audit and investigation of the EFAP was also proposed to determine whether the project’s design was feasible and whether it encroached upon the riverbed. An inquiry, it said, might also be conducted into the non-functioning of the early warning system in Swat district.
Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2025