KARACHI: Rescue teams continued searching the Lyari river near Sohrab Goth for a second consecutive day on Wednesday to recover the body of a four-year-old boy, who is feared to have drowned while riding a bicycle on Tuesday evening.

The boy, identified as Shavez Javed, fell in the Lyari river near Noor Islam Masjid in Machhar Colony on Tuesday evening. Seventeen-year-old Gulab Manzoor jumped into the river in an attempt to rescue him but drowned. Gulab’s body was recovered on Tuesday, while Shavez remains missing.

Relatives and local residents staged a protest on Wednesday evening and blocked the Superighway near Sohrab Goth.

Deputy Commissioner-Central Taha Saleem, who visited the site and met the victim’s relatives, told Dawn that, at the district administration’s request, three Rescue-1122 teams had continued the search operation through the night. He said officials had also been deployed at the site round the clock in three shifts. However, despite their efforts, the boy had not been traced by Wednesday evening.

Family, locals block Superhighway in protest over slow pace of search operation

Mr Saleem said the district administration had made arrangements in Liaquatabad to prevent the boy’s body from being washed out to sea.

Rescue-1122 spokesperson Hassaan Ul Haseeb Khan told Dawn that additional rescue teams had been deployed and were searching at three different locations in an effort to trace the missing child.

Mr Khan said this was not the first such incident at the location, as around 25 to 30 drowning incidents had been reported there in the recent past.

He also regretted that Rescue-1122 had been informed of the incident after a delay of around two to three hours.

Meanwhile, a traffic police spokesperson said in a statement that the main Superhighway near Al-Asif Chowrangi, leading towards New Subzi Mandi, had been closed to traffic because of the residents’ protest and vehicles were diverted to alternative routes.

The protest, which began at around 6pm, ended after approximately 20 minutes, after which the road was reopened to traffic.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has condemned what it described as the inability of the authorities to recover the child.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026