Unidentified body found from lake

LAHORE: The body of an unidentified elderly woman was found floating in the Iqbal Park’s lake on Thursday morning. The park, previously called Minto Park, that accommodates the Minar-i-Pakistan and a small lake, opens to visitors at 8 am. The body of the woman, around 55 years old, was fished out after being spotted by some visitors at around 1 pm.

Police said that the park administration has been ignorant about the body for more than five hours. Fiaz Shah, who is in charge of the security guards at Iqbal Park, said he believed the incident was a suicide and not a drowning. He said that the life guard were always alert to take care of such situations. He speculated that the woman had come for a walk before the park administration or life guards arrived and had committed suicide.

Sub Inspector Tajammul Hussain of the Lorry Adda police station said that a pair of ladies slippers were been found near the lake, which, he speculated, belonged to the women.  “There are chances that she might have taken off her shoes for exercise early morning,” he said. He said that the fence near the place the shoes were found was also broken, adding to the chances of her having slipped into the water through the broken fence. He said that even if the woman had tried to commit suicide, there should have been a life guard present at the lake round the clock.

Shah admitting the negligence of the park’s administration about not fixing the broken fence said that complaints have been filed with the higher authorities several times but to no one appeared from there. He said that five people had already committed suicide in this lake in the past few years.

Published in The Express Tribune, February  18^th, 2011.