KARACHI: A minor boy fell and drowned in an open manhole in Shah Faisal Colony on Sunday evening, rescue officials said.

The incident sparked widespread anger on social media. The opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan slammed the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government and said the incident also left a big question mark on the performance of the Jamaat-i-Islami-led municipal administration of the said union committee.

A Rescue-1122 official told Dawn that a family had gone to attend a wedding at the Tahira Ashrafi Hall.

He said that two brothers — six-year-old Ibad, and four-year-old Huzaifa — came out of the hall while playing and fell in an open manhole leading to a nearby drain.

The official said that area people immediately rushed to the spot and managed to rescue the elder brother, but there was no trace of Huzaifa.

After receiving information about the incident, a rescue team arrived at the spot and launched a search but to no avail.

As the drain’s main channel opens two kilometres far from the place of the incident in Bagh-i-Korangi, a search operation was also launched there and the rescuers found the child’s body floating in the water.

The corpse was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities.

Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice of the incident. He talked to Mayor Murtaza Wahab and urged him to take steps to cover open manholes across the city.

Meanwhile, the MQM-P demanded province’s top authorities to take notice of the failures of the municipal administration.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2025