KARACHI: A missing minor boy was found dead in an open manhole on Monday near his home off Superhighway, triggering a protest by relatives and residents against local government representatives over their failure to cover sewers.

SITE-Superhighway Industrial Area SHO Mohammed Nawaz told Dawn that three-year-old Ahsan Naveed had gone missing from his home in Faqeera Goth near New Subzi Mandi on Sunday night. Later, his body was spotted by a man in an open manhole on the main road near his home.

The corpse was recovered and shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

The officer said the relatives and residents protested against the union committee representatives for not covering the manhole that led to the tragic incident.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Haleem Adil Shaikh said in a statement that the manhole remained open for the last several months, reflecting a negligence of the provincial government and the Karachi administration.

There are several open manholes in the metropolis and the government is not taking any efforts to cover them, he added.

He criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial administration and said that it seemed the ruling party had no interest in resolving chronic issues faced by residents of Karachi.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2026