Lahore: Mother dies, 9-month-old daughter missing after falling into open manhole

LAHORE: A mother and her daughter fell into an open manhole near Bhati Gate, Lahore, on Wednesday night. A search operation was immediately launched for the duo, ARY News reported.

Rescue 1122 officials stated that portions of the manhole had been left open due to ongoing construction work near the Data Darbar Birds Market.

The victims, identified as Sadiya and her nine-month-old daughter, reportedly fell into the sewer due to the lack of visibility in the dark.

After several hours of rescue efforts, the woman’s body was recovered, but the search for her daughter is still ongoing.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran announced that a high-level committee has been established to conduct an inquiry into the tragic incident.

The DIG noted that the rapid flow of water caused the woman’s body to be carried a significant distance from the entry point.

In a heart-wrenching incident that has ignited widespread fury across Pakistan’s largest city, three-year-old Ibrahim Nabil’s lifeless body was recovered from a sewage drain nearly 15 hours after he slipped into an uncovered manhole near NIPA Chowrangi in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

The toddler’s death, occurring on the night of November 30, underscores the perilous state of Karachi’s crumbling infrastructure, where open drains and manholes continue to claim innocent lives despite repeated warnings.

The tragedy unfolded around 10 p.m. on Sunday when Ibrahim, the only child of his parents Nabeel and his wife, accompanied the family for a routine shopping trip at the Chase Up departmental store adjacent to the NIPA flyover. As the family exited the store, Nabeel paused to unlock his parked motorcycle in the bustling parking area. In a fleeting moment of distraction, the curious toddler slipped from his father’s grasp, darted ahead between the vehicles, and plummeted into a 2×2-foot open manhole—three feet deep and part of the city’s main 36-inch drainage line repurposed for sewage. Eyewitnesses described the manhole as a gaping hazard, its cover missing for several days, with no protective barriers in sight despite its location in front of a high-traffic commercial hub.

The family’s home in Shah Faisal Colony, a modest neighborhood on Karachi’s eastern fringes, now stands shrouded in grief. Ibrahim’s grandfather, Mehmoodul Hasan, received the child’s body late Monday, his voice breaking as he recounted the unimaginable loss. “He was our only light,” Hasan told reporters, while Ibrahim’s mother, overcome by shock, collapsed unconscious at the scene and required medical attention. Nabeel, haunted by the brief lapse, later revealed he and his father-in-law had desperately scoured the area overnight, even forking out Rs15,000 from their pockets to hire a private excavator when official aid failed to materialize.