Public safety: Protests after boy, 6, drowns in flooded plot

Locals say govt had promised to build children’s park at site of drowning.

LAHORE:

A six-year-old boy drowned in a pool of dirty water in a plot in the Railway Colony in Mughalpura on Monday. A five-year-old boy who was playing cricket with him was rescued by locals.

Residents of the area later staged a protest against the Punjab government, saying it had long pledged to convert the plot – which has become a filthy pond of stagnant water and garbage – into a children’s park with proper drainage. They demanded that the government fill the plot with soil to prevent further accidents.

The drowned boy was identified as Waqas, 6, the only son of labourer Hakeemullah, a resident of the Begumpura katchi abadi. Waqas and his friend Rafiullah, 5, chased their ball into the water and got stuck in the mud and garbage, which had mixed into a kind of quicksand.

Locals gathered at the scene and were able to save Rafiullah, but Waqas drowned.

They said that they had informed rescue officials at around 4pm, but they took several hours to get there. They said that divers pulled Waqas’s body from the water at around 7pm.

The residents of the area then staged a protest against the rescue officials and the government. Local police arrived at the scene and sought to calm the protesters.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2012.