FAISALABAD: Three people, two brothers among them, died after smelling noxious gas inside a manhole in Sidhupura neighbourhood of the city on Sunday, ARY News reported.
Rescue officials said a resident, identified as Ashfaq, stepped into a manhole to clear the line in front of an Imambargah in Rashidabad area but went silent moments later. Sensing that he had been trapped, two others named Ejaz and his brother Shehzad, descended into the drainage line one by one to rescue him but they too didn’t respond.
Another resident of the area Mazhar tried to rescue them but he too fell unconscious. On being informed of the incident, the rescue officials arrived at the spot and pulled them from the manhole.
A rescue official said Ashfaq, father of three children, died before he could be shifted to a hospital while Ejaz and Shehzad died in Allied Hospital where injured Mazhar is in critical condition.
Enraged family members of the deceased used their dead bodies to block Daewoo Road and stage a protest demonstration against the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), pressing for registration of a murder case against managing director Faqeer Muhammad.
Later, WASA officials announced a compensation of Rs.400,000 each and employment to the wife of Ashfaq and brothers of other two deceased, after which they demonstration was called off and they were buried in their ancestral graveyard.
