By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: The body of a 3-year-old boy who plunged into an open manhole in the bustling Gulshan-i-Iqbal neighborhood in Karachi on Sunday night was recovered on Monday, more than 12 hours after the accident, rescue officials said, underscoring the persistent dangers of the city’s neglected infrastructure.
The recovery was confirmed by Rescue 1122, the provincial emergency service, and the Edhi Foundation, a prominent charity that operates ambulances and morgues across Pakistan. Edhi officials said the boy’s remains were transported to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for examination. Images circulating on social media Sunday night captured a swelling crowd of residents at the site, as rescue teams labored under floodlights. In one video, the child’s mother, overcome with anguish, could be heard imploring bystanders and officials to save her son.
Hassaanul Haseeb Khan, a spokesman for Rescue 1122, said the service’s central command was alerted to the incident around 10 pm on Sunday. The boy had been with his parents, shopping at a private department store near the Nipa intersection. After the family exited the store, the child fell into the uncovered manhole. Rescue 1122 typically avoids conducting searches after dark because of poor visibility, Khan said. But with a “highly charged” crowd assembling and the parents in profound distress, teams proceeded anyway. The operation stretched late into the night, with workers excavating five separate areas using heavy machinery in an effort to locate the boy.
The incident has ignited fresh scrutiny of Karachi’s crumbling civic services, prompting pledges of investigation from city officials amid accusations of negligence. Mayor Murtaza Wahab, speaking to reporters, vowed to launch an inquiry but urged restraint against turning the tragedy into a political battleground. “Unfortunately, when this kind of thing happens, we immediately go toward blame and rhetoric,” he said. “If there is a human tragedy, then is it necessary to bring politics into it?”
Wahab said the probe would examine how long the manhole had remained open in a high-traffic area near a department store frequented by thousands daily. “How it was open or was it left open at that time … this will be checked,” he said. “If there was carelessness on the part of the government, I assure you we will take action.”
He also indicated he would question the local union council chairman about any prior reports of the hazard, while raising concerns over the allocation of funds to such bodies. “This is very unfortunate,” Wahab said of the episode. “I will refrain from political rhetoric, but I will say once, and for all that we will have to decide whether we will focus on assigning blame or actually try to find solutions to people’s problems.”
Opposition figures seized on the death to assail the provincial government led by the Pakistan Peoples Party, which controls Sindh Province, including Karachi. Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, the emir of Jamaat-i-Islami, an Islamist political party, accused authorities of endangering residents through botched infrastructure projects, particularly the Bus Rapid Transit system.
Speaking to the media, Rehman said the BRT construction had ravaged roads and created hazards. “BRT projects in Karachi should be stopped due to their numerous flaws, which are causing traffic issues and endangering lives,” he said. He directly linked the boy’s death to excavation work on University Road between Nipa Chowrangi and the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology, part of the Karachi Water and Sewerage System Improvement Project. #
Such fatalities are grimly routine in Pakistan, especially in teeming urban centers like Karachi, where shoddy drainage networks, absent or damaged manhole covers, and dim lighting in crowded areas routinely imperil pedestrians. The sewers often brim with poisonous wastewater and lack oxygen, leading to rapid suffocation or drowning. In September, three sanitation workers perished after tumbling into a manhole during cleaning operations in Karachi’s Usmanabad area. In May, a 6-year-old boy drowned in an open manhole elsewhere in the city, sparking protests that led police to file charges. And in April, the body of a young girl was pulled from a drain in Liaqatabad after she went missing.
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