KARACHI: A three-year-old boy, reported missing by his family, is feared to have drowned in Lyari Nadi near Sohrab Goth, prompting rescue teams to launch a search operation that continued for two days but failed to trace him by Thursday night.

The operation was suspended for the night and scheduled to resume on Friday, officials said. Deputy Commissioner East Nasrullah Abbasi told Dawn that he had been monitoring the search operation since Wednesday evening, but the child, identified as Shahid, could not be found.

He said neither the boy’s parents nor local residents had witnessed him falling into the river. Some workers carrying out machinery-related work in the area had also said they had not seen the child fall into the water.

The DC East said that, as the family had expressed doubts about the possibility of drowning, rescue teams had been deployed to search different locations along the river. However, the child remained untraced until Thursday night.

Mr Abbasi expressed concern over settlements established on encroached land along both banks of Lyari Nadi, particularly on the District Central side, where some houses were made of bricks while others were makeshift huts.

He said that, as similar drowning incidents had been reported in the past, the administration would approach the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to arrange fencing along the riverbanks to prevent such incidents in future.

Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaan Ul Haseeb Khan told Dawn that the service had received information about the suspected drowning on Wednesday evening and dispatched a team to the site at night.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2026