A six-year-old boy drowned in an open manhole in Karachi on Wednesday, which triggered a protest by residents and politicians, prompting the police to register a case against unidentified suspects in Jamshed Quarters.<\/p>\n
Jamshed Quarters police Station House Officer (SHO) Ansar Butt said, \u201cTwo siblings were passing by a petrol pump in the area when one of them fell into an open manhole.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe victim\u2019s brother alerted bystanders about the incident, where the boy drowned. After being inside the manhole for about 20 minutes, the boy passed away at 7pm on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident angered locals who lodged a protest at the scene, which was joined by MQM-P lawmaker Amir Siddiqi.<\/p>\n
Siddiqi told the media, \u201cThe Sindh government and Karachi mayor have failed to cover open manholes in the metropolis. A child fell into a 16-foot-deep drain and died.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has been destroyed,\u201d the lawmaker regretted.<\/p>\n
Siddiqi told Dawn.com that the protest took place for four hours as the police were delaying the registering of a first information report (FIR). \u201cThe police finally registered the FIR when I personally spoke to top police officers, including the Sindh inspector general,\u201d he said, terming the incident \u201ca tragedy for the poor family\u201d.<\/p>\n
SHO Butt said the police registered a case against unidentified suspects on the complaint of the victim\u2019s maternal uncle Mohammed Ibrahim under Section 322 (manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code.<\/p>\n
One of the residents told Dawn.com that the victim and his 12-year-old brother used to sell french fries in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had purchased potatoes and were on their way home when electricity in the area was cut,\u201d the resident said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner of the nearby petrol pump had opened a car wash, whose operator would leave the manhole open when he washed cars to drain water,\u201d they added. \u201cThe manhole was uncovered when one of the boys fell into it due to the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resident said that the protest continued until 1am on Wednesday, when the police, in the presence of Siddiqui, \u201cpromised\u201d that they would try to get compensation from the petrol pump owner.<\/p>\n
Open manholes have become a persistent hazard across Pakistan, posing serious risks to pedestrians and motorists alike. Despite repeated public complaints, authorities have failed to implement long-term solutions to prevent accidents and fatalities.<\/p>\n
In April, the body of a minor girl was found in a drain in Karachi\u2019s Liaquatabad neighbourhood, according to police.<\/p>\n
A statement from the police said the minor\u2019s body was recovered from a drain near Siddique Mosque and appeared to be one or two days old. It added that the body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital to ascertain the cause of death.<\/p>\n
Liaquatabad SHO Ghulam Yasin told Dawn.com that the girl\u2019s body was found floating in the drain near Angara Goth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt appeared that she was drowned somewhere else and the current of the water brought her there,\u201d he said, adding that she was reported missing within the limits of Sachal Police Station on April 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A six-year-old boy drowned in an open manhole in Karachi on Wednesday, which triggered a protest by residents and politicians, prompting the police to register a case against unidentified suspects in Jamshed Quarters. Jamshed Quarters police Station House Officer (SHO) Ansar Butt said, \u201cTwo siblings were passing by a petrol pump in the area when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-and-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9562,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9560\/revisions\/9562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}