LAHORE: Several residents of the Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate staged a protest demonstration on Peco Road on Tuesday after a four-year old died after falling into an open manhole.



The protesters chanted slogans against the administration for not covering manholes despite several complaints.



Police said Saeed, 4, was visiting his aunt in the Industrial Estate. Saeed was playing with his cousins at Gate 2 near Puli Stop. The ball they were playing with fell into a drain and Saeed went to fetch it but fell into the drain. People in the area tried to rescue him but could not.



His father said they called Rescue-1122 several times but got through late because their helpline was not working. Some of the family members went to the nearest police station and informed them about the incident. The police called Rescue-1122 officials who managed to recover the body after looking for it for an hour.



A Rescue-1122 official said the drain had carried corrosive chemicals. He said a member of their team had fainted while looking for the child and had to be taken to General Hospital for treatment. The child’s body was taken to Children’s Hospital. Rescue-1122 Spokesman Jam Sajjad said their average response time was two to three minutes. In this case, he said, the substantial delay was due to disruption of phone lines.



The victim’s family placed the body on Peco Road and blocked it for traffic for two hours.



Residents of the area said many manholes in the area were uncovered even though they had sent several reminders to the management of Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate and WASA.



Imtiaz Ghauri, a WASA spokesman, said drains in the Industrial Estate were not their responsibility.



Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2014.