There was no protective wall or roof around the drain.
KARACHI - Four of a family, riding on a bike, fell into Shadman Nullah on Sunday night. Resultantly, a woman died and her two-month-old-son Dayan was still missing while her husband and a minor girl were saved by the rescue services.
As per rescuers, the infant boy was still missing while the search was underway. In the incident, a man namely Danish, his wife and two children-- riding on a motorcycle-- fell into the drain in Shadman Town during heavy rain on Sunday.
Immediately after the incident, the Edhi volunteers rescued the man and his three-year-old daughter, while the body of the wife was also recovered. But there was no trace of infant Dayan so for.
Edhi volunteers searched for the child till late night but to no avail after which the Pak Navy team kept searching since Monday morning.
The flow of the drain was high on Sunday after the rains and it is suspected that the infant had drowned and went far due to the rapid flow of water.
Due to the accumulation of rain water, the drain and the road were leveled and there was no protective wall or roof around the drain. The affected family was resident of Orangi Town and was returning home after visiting the relatives.
According to the Edhi officials, more than half a kilometer of the drain has been searched so far.
Separately, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has held the Pakistan People Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible for Shadman tragedy that claimed two innocent lives — a mother and her few months old son traveling on a bike with her husband when the bike fell into Shadman nullah.
The JI leader explained that the PPP government appointed political administrator who failed to make any protective measures around the rain drain while the MQM had changed the route of the drain. Engr Naeemur Rehman expressed these views at a press conference held at Idara Noor-e-Haq — the headquarters of the JI Karachi, here on Monday.
He highlighted that the JI had already demanded of the government to reconstruct the drain with appropriate design but the government did nothing as it has some other priorities. As a result, he said, a bike riding family slept into the rain drain on Sunday night and two of them had died, whereas the dead body of the mother was recovered and efforts were being made to recover the body of a child till Monday morning.
He said that billions of rupees are allocated for cleanliness of the rain drains but no practical measure is taken on the ground. Further talking about the rains, he said that 30,000 buildings in the city are on the verge of collapse but the Sindh Building Control Authority pays no heed to thousands of innocent lives just for the sake of some extra bucks.
The JI leader said that Karachi has become a city of grief and destruction and practically there is no transportation system in the city. He said that all the ruling parties come to masses, make towering claims but do nothing on the ground.
He added that the Shadman tragedy occurred because there was no protection shield around the nullah and it was turned from a very inappropriate point that caused the recent tragedy. The PTI was also focused on conquering Punjab but it has no agenda for Karachi except fake announcements of packages worth hundreds of billions of rupees.
Engr Naeemur Rehman said that contrary to the PML-N, the PTI, the PPP and the MQM, JI has worked for the betterment and development of Karachi and Karachiites. He recalled that the JI’s governments in the past had transformed Karachi into a clean and green city. The JI leader assured Karachiites that the JI would repeat the history if elected in the local bodies government. He appealed the masses to vote and support the scale — the JI’s symbol in local government polls — on July 24.