One protester said “the ill-fated boy from Bahawalpur was visiting with his mother and siblings". PHOTO: FILE
Scores of people belonging to Malkhanwala protested against the administration on Monday for not filling sewerage ponds and developing them into public parks, as had been promised.
The demonstration was held after the body of an 11-year-old boy Dilshad Akram was recovered from a sewerage pond in Malkhanwala in the area of the Saddar police station.
Naveed Akhtar, one of the protestors, said “the ill-fated boy from Bahawalpur was visiting with his mother and siblings, and went missing last Saturday”. On Monday morning, his body was found floating in a sewerage pond in the area. Police were called and took the body to a mortuary for post-mortem examination.
Another protestor, Shakeel Anwar, said the district coordination officer (DCO) had repeatedly announced that such sewerage ponds would be filled and turned into public parks. Anwar said the Federal State Minister for Water and Power Chaudhary Abid Sher Ali had also promised that the ponds would be converted but the promise had not been fulfilled.
The Saddar SHO Muhammad Afzal said it seemed that the boy had died after falling into the sewerage pond. The child’s parents filed a complaint that says he was killed. The SHO said the case would be registered after a medico-legal report was received.
City Police Officer Haidar Ashraf has formed an investigation committee headed by the Saddar DSP Mujahid Raza and directed them to submit a report within 24 hours, a police spokesman said.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2014.
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