GUJRAT: A six-year-old boy died while his parents and a minor sister were injured when the roof of their house at Paharey village near Kotla caved in due to the heavy rain in the area on Thursday.

A Rescue 1122 team reached the village and retrieved the boy’s body and shifted it, along with the injured couple and their three-year-old daughter, Haleema, to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital.

According to doctors, the three injured persons are out of danger.

DC Safdar Virk visited the ABSTH to inquire after the injured persons and directed the hospital administration to provide them the required treatment.

The heavy rain which lashed the area paralysed the routine life on the first working day (Thursday) after the Muharram holidays, as the city’s markets, commercial hubs and streets were submerged by rainwater.

Locals criticised the Gujrat Municipal Corporation for once again failing to timely drain rainwater from roads and streets as sewerage and drains found choked at most of the affected spots in the city.

The compounds of district administration offices, municipal corporation, judicial complex and the ABSTH remained submerged by the rainwater throughout the day, causing inconvenience for the people.

Moreover, the rainwater also accumulated on the city’s main arteries like Rehman Shaheed Road, Jail Road, Jinnah Road, Circular Road, Court Road and in the adjoining streets, besides busy Muslim Bazaar.

Officials say the first heavy rain of monsoon proved disastrous for the city’s fragile infrastructure as the rainwater entered houses, shops and plazas in many areas.

A fire engine of Rescue 1122 got struck in a manhole near Jail Chowk due to the rainwater. Many residents of the nearby localities brought their tractors to help those trapped in the areas where rainwater had accumulated.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2024