Five youths go missing in Western Jamuna Canal; family members attacked by rival group

YAMUNANAGAR: Five youths went missing in the Western Jamuna Canal (WJC) near Buria town in Yamunanagar district in the afternoon on Sunday.
The incident took place after a group of 11 youths was allegedly attacked with stones and sharp-edged weapons by their rival group and in an attempt to save themselves, they jumped in the WJC.
However, six of the 11 youths had a narrow escape and managed to come out of the WJC safely.
The missing youths have been identified as Sahil Verma, Sunny, Nikhil Gupta, Ala-Ud-Din, and Suleman, all residents of Jagadhri City in Yamunanagar district.
Sources told the group (which came to take bath) was followed by their rival group, which launched an attack following old rivalry with stones, forcing the 11 youths to jump into the canal.
Sources said the attacking group continued attack with stones in the canal till they were able to see their rival youths in the water, adding that an SUV belonging to missing youths parked on the bank of the canal was also damaged. The miscreants fled the spot after the attack.
Meanwhile, the youths who managed to come out of canal alerted the family members of the missing youths and heavy police force including senior officials also reached the spot on receiving the information.
Yamunanagar district administration launched a search operation with boats in the WJC.
Buria police station house officer (SHO) Lajja Ram said the incident took place at about 3pm.
“The 11 youths jumped into the water of WJC to save themselves from the attackers. Six of them came out of the water safely, but five of them went missing,” said SHO Lajja Ram.
Yamunanagar deputy commissioner (DC) Parthenon Gupta said, "Five youths have gone missing in WJC and we have launched a search operation. I have requested the senior officials to reduce the flow of WJC from its head so that we can easily search and rescue the missing youths."
Meanwhile, Mohammad Ibrahim, father of missing youth Suleman, said, "The youths had come to take bath after exiting the rally when they were attacked by their rivals. We received the information on phone call from their friends, who managed to save themselves while my son was pushed deep into water due to attack by stones. Our kids went deep to save themselves and went missing. "
"Two years ago, Ala-Ud-Din's father was murdered. The matter is under trial in the court. The accused party forced us to reach a compromise by giving statement in their favour to settle the case as their kin were in jail. We gave statement in favour of one accused and one statement was pending, now they were forcing us to give statement in favour of another accused else they would kill us. The last statement was pending in the court before which this incident took place", said Ibrahim, who nephew Ala-Ud-Din is also missing.
When contacted, Yamunanagar superintendent of police (SP) Surender Pal Singh said, "We are registering a case under Section 302 (IPC) (murder) as they missing youths were attacked with stones. Search operation is still ongoing and divers have been deputed to find out the missing youths. The incident took place following old rivalry."