SAHIWAL: Three labourers died and two were critically injured after being buried alive inside a deep trench when its mud walls collapsed in Sahiwal city on Friday.

The trench was being dug for laying a new main sewerage line under the ongoing Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement and Investment Programme (PICIIP), funded by the Asian Development Bank.

As per details, the incident occurred near village 89/6-R on the Muhammad Pur Road early in the morning. Eyewitnesses and fellow workers claimed that the contractor had failed to ensure safety measures which led to the incident.

They claimed that the mud walls caved in due to the absence of protective supports inside the main sewerage trench.

Rescue sources reported that the accident occurred at 10:58am and two heavy cranes cleared the debris to recover the bodies of three labourers and the two injured survivors after 90 minutes.

All victims belonged to village 617/GB, Tandlianwala tehsil of Faisalabad.

The deceased were identified as Asad Ali (18), Talib (38), and Ihsan (22). The injured included Abdul Malik (30) and Ghulam Mustafa (35). Rescue 1122 shifted them to the Sahiwal Teaching Hospital (STH).

This was the second fatal accident during the long-delayed PICIIP project.

Earlier on May 29, 2020, a labourer named Tahir Abbas (25) was buried alive and two others were critically injured when a mud wall collapsed on the Railway Road under similar circumstances. Reports at the time also indicated that contractors had ignored safety protocols.

Heavy police contingents were deployed at the STH when the grieving families and fellow workers gathered to collect the remains of the deceased. The bodies were transported to their native villages in the evening for burial.

PICIIP District Manager Asjad Khan said that an official statement of the incident would be released soon, however, no statement had been received till the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2025