Swampy lake at Boat Basin swallows seven

The scorching weather is claiming lives in more ways than just heatstroke as a man, who jumped into the lake of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Park in Clifton to cool off, drowned and died, while another lost his life in a bid to rescue the first.

Two others lost consciousness trying to rescue the three, while a search for three people, who are still missing, continues.

Residents of the area blocked the road and suspended traffic due to the alleged lack of help from authorities concerned. A person drowned in the lake inside Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Park near Boat Basin Chowrangi on Wednesday, while two people who jumped in to rescue him lost consciousness and three more went missing.

Edhi and Naval services team recovered one body on Wednesday night and the other on Thursday morning. Two people were fished out of the water in a state of unconsciousness and taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in a critical condition.

One of the deceased was identified as 25-year-old Allah Daad and the other as Saifullah. Allah Dad hailed from Peshawar and the body was taken to his home city for burial on the night between Wednesday and Thursday. Meanwhile, Saifullah's body was taken out at around 8.30am on Thursday and shifted to JPMC.

Residents of the area said these people drowned at 2pm on Wednesday. They recalled that Edhi and Pakistan Navy divers came and left shortly after. "Since then, we have been trying to save our people by ourselves," one of the locals said.

The protesters continued there was a swamp in the lake and the voice of a boy was coming from there. However, no one was able to get there initially. One of the angered locals claimed that the Sindh government offered no help.

"The people of Sindh government are busy taking selfies from all over the city and broadcasting them on the media, but they are not taking any steps to save drowning victims," the individual stated.

"We were forced to block Mai Kolachi and Boat Basin Road. Police officers arrived over the blocking of the road, but they could do nothing to save the drowning people and only talked of opening the thoroughfare.

After the protest, long queues of trailers, trucks and tankers to and from Keamari Port were formed. Traffic was suspended until dawn on Thursday morning. The demonstrators later postponed the protest on humanitarian grounds and allowed traffic to resume.

The protesters said that if the Sindh government did not take any steps to rescue the missing people, they would block the road again by holding a sit-in at Boat Basin Chowrangi. According to the police, the condition of the two persons, who were rescued in a state of unconsciousness, is now out of danger.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2022.