At around 10 am, the three boys were walking across the 200-meter breakwater connecting the mosque to the main road. They were barely half-way through when they were thrown into the sea by a huge wave. Eyewitnesses said that while two of the boys sank immediately, the third was seen struggling in the water. Local youths jumped into the rough waters immediately and rescued him, they added.

Allahuddin Niyazkhan, one of the members of the local rescue team, said that the boy would have drowned if they had jumped into the water a minute late. ``The sea was extremely rough but we somehow managed to get a grip on the boy's clothes. The other members then quickly dragged him to safety,'' Allahuddin noted.

The survivor, later identified as Aslam (16), was rushed to Nair Hospital. The identity ofthe other two youths is yet to be ascertained, and police are trying to find out if the three boys were known to each other.

After the efforts of firemen to remove the two bodies failed to yield results, the Navy launched a search and rescue operation, which lasted for over 60 minutes.

On an average, there are 10 to 15 cases of drowning at Haji Ali every year. Most of the instances of drowning take place during the monsoons, when the waves are high and the visitors to the shrine are often caught unawares by the high tide at the time of crossing the breakwater. Sometimes the waves rise more than a feet above the breakwater linking the mosque and the main road.

``We have always tried to offer our services to rescue pilgrims from drowning, but our efforts are somehow not appreciated,'' remarked a local who lives in the hutments near Haji Ali. Seven collegians, four of them girls, had drowned off the Alibaug coast last week.