Boy dies after falling into uncovered manhole in Lahore’s Sundar area

LAHORE: A five-year-old boy died after falling into an uncovered manhole in Lahore’s Sundar area on Tuesday, officials said.

The child was identified as Hassan Amir. According to police and his father, he was playing in a street near Rana Town, behind a mosque, when he accidentally fell into a drainage pit. Residents rushed to the spot, pulled him out and shifted him to Indus Hospital, where doctors could not save his life.

The boy’s father, Amir Jameel, registered a first information report at Sundar Police Station under Section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which relates to qatl-bis-sabab. In the FIR, he stated that the incident took place at about 6pm while his son was playing in the street.

In the complaint, Amir Jameel named the concerned administration, the Atomic Energy Society (Maraka) administration and the management of A&B Construction Company as responsible parties, and sought legal action. He said residents helped rescue the child before he was taken to hospital, where he later died from his injuries.

Police said an investigation had been started to determine who was responsible for the child’s death and whether safety precautions had been neglected. Saddar Division Superintendent of Police Shah Rukh Khan visited the site and offered condolences to the family.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Mohammad Faisal Kamran said the matter was being investigated from multiple angles and that action would be taken under the law against those found responsible.

The incident led local residents to renew calls for immediate steps to cover open manholes, which they said had become a continuing danger, particularly for children. They said repeated loss of life was the result of negligence by the relevant authorities and urged effective measures to stop such incidents from happening again.

The death also brought back memories of earlier cases in Lahore. In January this year, a woman and her child died after falling into a manhole near Bhati Gate. A month later, in Raiwind, a two-and-a-half-year-old child also died after falling into an open manhole. Similar incidents have also been reported in Karachi, including last year’s case in which three-year-old Ibrahim fell into an open manhole near Nipa Flyover in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and his body was recovered 15 hours later from a manhole near Sir Syed University on University Road.