Death trap: Open manhole devours seven-year-old boy
Abdullah’s body was fished out three days after the tragedy.
ISLAMABAD:
Abdullah’s mother kept on pushing her son to have more food on last Friday morning. She insisted, but he silently left for school after he had hardly eating just one egg.
“We did not get the message behind his silence,” said Sajid Mehmood, father of the seven-year-old boy who fell to his tragic death into an open manhole near a private university in H-11.
Abdullah, eldest among three siblings, was a student of class two at the Federal Government Primary School G-8/4. He had gone to school on October 21 and did not return. Three days later his body was recovered from the drain on Monday.
“The pick and drop van driver told us that Abdullah was in the vehicle till afternoon,” said Mehmood. The driver parked the van in front of the private university, where he had to pick up some girl students from Al-Huda Education Centre. “He then went to offer Friday prayers. On his return the driver found Abdullah missing,” said the aggrieved father.
Mehmood quoted some of Abdullah’s friends that his ill-fated boy went out of the van to drink water. “He was running here and there; suddenly he vanished,” he quoted them as saying.
From that moment on, his family members had been trying to locate Abdullah. They even went to the Sabzi Mandi Police Station to lodge the first investigative report (FIR) but it was not registered.
“On Monday afternoon we went to the FAST University and searched for Abdullah. We checked all the manholes in the area with the help of the police and most of them were filled with sewerage,” he said. We found Abdullah’s body lying in one of the drains, he said with chocked voice.
“We do not know who to blame for this tragedy — the driver who parked his van there, the civic agency or the administration for not covering the open manhole,” said the father with tears rolling down from his cheeks.
Talking to The Express Tribune, a Sabzi Mandi Police official said that while pumping water out from one of the manholes, Abdullah’s shirt came out along with the water. “This led us to fish out his body which had been lying there in mutilated form,” said the official. The body was taken to the Emergency Ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for postmortem.
Pims Deputy Director Dr Farrukh Kamal, who was part of the postmortem team, said, “According to the initial report it seems that the death was caused due to drowning.”
However things will be clear after chemical examination report, he added.
This was not the first time a precious life was lost due to an open manhole and when questioned about possible negligence in duty, spokesperson for Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ramzan Sajid said that the civic body is not responsible for the open manhole located on Kashmir Highway. However, he admitted that due to the road maintenance work in the area, some of the manholes have been kept open.
“Covering of such drains located near private universities is the responsibility of the institutes,” said Sajid.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2011.
Abdullah’s mother kept on pushing her son to have more food on last Friday morning. She insisted, but he silently left for school after he had hardly eating just one egg.
“We did not get the message behind his silence,” said Sajid Mehmood, father of the seven-year-old boy who fell to his tragic death into an open manhole near a private university in H-11.
Abdullah, eldest among three siblings, was a student of class two at the Federal Government Primary School G-8/4. He had gone to school on October 21 and did not return. Three days later his body was recovered from the drain on Monday.
“The pick and drop van driver told us that Abdullah was in the vehicle till afternoon,” said Mehmood. The driver parked the van in front of the private university, where he had to pick up some girl students from Al-Huda Education Centre. “He then went to offer Friday prayers. On his return the driver found Abdullah missing,” said the aggrieved father.
Mehmood quoted some of Abdullah’s friends that his ill-fated boy went out of the van to drink water. “He was running here and there; suddenly he vanished,” he quoted them as saying.
From that moment on, his family members had been trying to locate Abdullah. They even went to the Sabzi Mandi Police Station to lodge the first investigative report (FIR) but it was not registered.
“On Monday afternoon we went to the FAST University and searched for Abdullah. We checked all the manholes in the area with the help of the police and most of them were filled with sewerage,” he said. We found Abdullah’s body lying in one of the drains, he said with chocked voice.
“We do not know who to blame for this tragedy — the driver who parked his van there, the civic agency or the administration for not covering the open manhole,” said the father with tears rolling down from his cheeks.
Talking to The Express Tribune, a Sabzi Mandi Police official said that while pumping water out from one of the manholes, Abdullah’s shirt came out along with the water. “This led us to fish out his body which had been lying there in mutilated form,” said the official. The body was taken to the Emergency Ward of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) for postmortem.
Pims Deputy Director Dr Farrukh Kamal, who was part of the postmortem team, said, “According to the initial report it seems that the death was caused due to drowning.”
However things will be clear after chemical examination report, he added.
This was not the first time a precious life was lost due to an open manhole and when questioned about possible negligence in duty, spokesperson for Capital Development Authority (CDA) Ramzan Sajid said that the civic body is not responsible for the open manhole located on Kashmir Highway. However, he admitted that due to the road maintenance work in the area, some of the manholes have been kept open.
“Covering of such drains located near private universities is the responsibility of the institutes,” said Sajid.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 25th, 2011.