MUZAFFARABAD: Two persons drowned after a boat capsized in Mangla Lake in the southern Mirpur district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

The locally made wooden launch had taken off from Sanghot village in Mirpur for Islamgarh, located along the opposite bank at a distance of one furlong, but it overturned after a few moments, apparently due to overloading, SSP Mirpur Irfan Saleem told Dawn by telephone.

Local residents recovered sixteen persons alive, of whom one died in the hospital later on. One person`s body was fished out by professional divers, the SSP said.-Tariq Nagash