LAHORE/TOBA TEK SINGH: The police on Friday arrested the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the contractor company of the under-construction Data Darbar expansion project.

“We have arrested two CEOs of the company – Salman and Usman – in the case lodged with the Bhati Gate Police,” Lahore Investigation DIG Zeeshan Raza told Dawn.

He said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz issued strict orders for strong action against all those involved in the criminal negligence, which led to the death of the woman and her minor daughter. Expanding the scope of the investigation, the police would question the project’s contractor and M/S Design and Engineering Pvt Limited’s CEO to determine their role in the incident, a police official said.

“A team of senior officers will question both of them to determine why the company failed to ensure safety protocols and cover the loopholes that led to the incident,” he added.

The government has already suspended from service the entire team of the Data Darbar revamp project, including Bhati Chowk remodelling, after the preliminary inquiry proved their negligence.

Both victims laid to rest in Jhang; woman’s husband details police torture; SP, DSP, SHO held responsible for misconduct

Victims laid to rest

Bhati Gate manhole incident victims, Sadia (24) and her nine-month-old daughter Rida Fatima, were laid to rest on Friday in their village Allahyar Jutta in tehsil Shorkot of district Jhang where scores of people attended their funeral prayers.

After the burial of his wife and daughter on Friday, Sadia’s husband Ghulam Murtaza told the reporters that his family had reached Lahore on Monday and then went to the zoo, Badshahi Mosque and finally Data Darbar.

After paying our respects to the shrine, he said when they crossed the road and started sitting in the rickshaw, when Sadia and Rida slipped into the open manhole. He added that after the incident, he called Rescue 1122 and cried for help but the rescuers said that the body could not pass through this drain as the pipeline was just one and half feet wide. When the police arrived, they took Murtaza to the police station and tortured him with belts and sticks in the presence of SP Bilal. He said the rickshaw in which they were riding belonged to his cousin who was also with them.

Ghulam Murtaza, during the press talk, disclosed that, “when the police were torturing me, SHO Zain Abbas forced me to confess that I had sent my wife with someone and that she did not fall into the manhole”.

Murtaza said he told the police that he would not go without finding bodies of his wife and daughter. The police wanted him to write a statement that the rickshaw belonged to someone else but he remained firm that the rickshaw belonged to his own cousin.

During the detention, the SP showed me a picture of my deceased wife to identify her which he did. Murtaza said the DIG reprimanded SHO Zain for torturing him.

In reply to a question, he said he had no demands from the government and that he was satisfied with the CM’s statements but was disappointed with the attitude of policemen.

The inquiry report

A high-powered fact-finding committee probing the Bhati Gate incident has held the divisional SP, the DSP and the SHO concerned responsible for unprofessional conduct, declaring that they kept the woman’s husband in illegal detention for three hours or so and tortured him to confess ‘the murder of his wife’.

An officer, privy to the inquiry report, said the police officials mentioned above had reached the site, bundled deceased Sadia’s husband, Murtaza, into a van and took him to the police station where they slapped and tortured him.

It was the first official departmental inquiry report which defined the role of the police officers in the high-profile case while the such investigations against the DC, AC and other officials were yet to be launched.

Quoting the report, the source said, the police officials jumped to the premature conclusion of arresting Murtaza soon after the Rescue 1122 personnel blamed the drowning in the two-feet deep water as technically a false claim, and declared Murtaza’s call a ‘fake’.

Murtaza kept trying to convince the police officers that no one could dare kill his wife in such a populated place where hundreds of people were walking around. However, the police officials began treating him gently when they got an update at around 10:15pm, hours after the incident, that Sadia’s body was found.

As per the inquiry report, the police official said, Murtaza was waiting for an auto rickshaw for his family after visiting the shrine of Hazrat Ali Hajveri (RA). He added that his wife, Sadia, was holding her minor daughter at the time when suddenly she lost her balance and fell down on the ground.

According to the officer, the minor daughter she was holding slipped from her arms and fell down into the open manhole of the sewerage line of the under-construction Data Darbar expansion project.

He said that though Sadia had suffered a head injury but fell into the manhole probably in an attempt to rescue her 10-month old daughter and her husband was eyewitness of the entire disturbing episode. The two female relatives of the couple were also present at the spot. The SHO, DSP and the SP were the first responders who reached the site and inquired into the matter.

After an hour or so, they took Murtaza into custody from the spot and called his father-in-law during ‘interrogation’ in the police station. The police officials thrashed him physically when his father-in-law told them that Murtaza had been torturing his wife.

The inquiry panel pointed out in the report that the police officials should not act merely on the opinion of Rescue 1122. It was the prime and immediate responsibility of the officers to first complete investigations into the woman’s drowning before initiating any action against her husband, the official said while quoting the findings of the report.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026