LAHORE: Police on Thursday arrested all three people nominated in the first information report (FIR) report registered after a woman and her minor daughter died after falling into an under-construction sewer line a day earlier.
The FIR was filed by the woman’s father and named the construction project’s manager and safety management. The FIR — available with Dawn — was filed at the Bhatti Gate police station under Section 322 (manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code. In the complaint, the deceased woman’s father stated that his son received a call from his son-in-law informing him about the incident.
“Upon receiving this information, I, my son … my son-in-law … and my friend … reached Data Darbar at about 2:30am,” the complainant stated in the FIR. “There, my son-in-law … informed us that his wife … and his daughter … had fallen into the said manhole.”
The FIR noted the woman’s husband added that her body had been recovered, but at the time, the daughter’s body was still missing.
The complainant named three individuals in the FIR, accusing them of leaving “the manhole open due to negligence and carelessness”. These were the construction project’s project manager, the safety in-charge and the site in-charge.
“Due to their gross negligence and irresponsibility, my daughter … and my granddaughter … lost their lives,” he said in the complaint.
Subsequently, Lahore Operations SSP Mohammad Tauqir confirmed to Dawn that the suspects nominated in the FIR by the complainant had been arrested.
The arrests were made after Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz issued directions to expand the scope of action to punish those responsible for the death of the woman and her minor daughter.
Child’s body found
Earlier on Thursday, police said that the body of the child, said to be a baby between nine to ten months old in the FIR, was recovered. The body of the mother was found during the wee hours of Thursday morning.
In a statement, Rescue 1122 said that its “diving team had recovered the girl’s body from Saggian”, around five kilometres from Bhatti Chowk, where the incident took place a day earlier.
The woman and her child had reportedly fallen into the open manhole after they dismounted a rickshaw on Wednesday evening. At the time, conflicting reports had emerged about the incident, with some authorities doubting that the woman had in fact fallen into the manhole.
Reportedly, rescue teams had initially doubted the call made by the woman’s husband and also raised doubts about the authenticity of the incident. They had alleged that the water level at the time of the operation was just two feet deep, which made it impossible for a person to drown.
Meanwhile, official statements, including those by the district management, further complicated the matter as they shifted the entire blame on the woman’s husband.
Following these premature statements, police high-ups ordered the interrogation of the woman’s husband.
The role of the project managers also remained questionable. The under-construction sewerage pipeline was left uncovered, despite the fact that hundreds of people visiting Data Darbar were walking around in the area.
In the early hours of Thursday, Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran had stated that the body of the mother had been found at the disposal station on Outfall Road.
When asked about the various reports about the water flow not being fast enough to carry away a person, he said, “You should also look at the time difference. When it happened, the water flow was fast; those are peak hours.”
He said that the water flow receded as the night progressed.
At the same time, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had taken notice of the incident and constituted a fact-finding committee to investigate the matter and submit a report within 24 hours.
It should also be mentioned that two officials of Tepa, a subsidiary of the Lahore Development Authority, were placed under suspension with immediate effect “on account of an incident [regarding] uncovered manholes”.
Last month, a seven-year-old boy in Punjab’s Bahawalpur district fell into an open manhole in Dhanote town near Lodhran city and died.
CM Maryam fires Lahore DC, grills officials over incident
On Thursday, Punjab CM Maryam took aim at senior officials, including the Lahore commissioner, assistant commissioner and the head of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) for the “negligence” which led to the incident.
Addressing a high-level meeting, she noted that Rs500 billion was being spent on construction projects across the province.
“Regardless of how much this work costs, it is happening to improve people’s lives and their living environment and provide relief to them. It is not meant to kill them.”
CM Maryam added that if the incident happened in a more remote area with less foot traffic, “it could be understandable”.
“This is the area in Lahore with the most footfall, near Data Sahib,” she noted.
“It is such a prime area, with so much foot traffic; there’s a construction site there, and this is such criminal negligence that there is no work going on. The workers or contractors or whoever have left, and nobody is concerned that a manhole or a ditch is left open. Does nobody care?”
She questioned the assistant commissioner for saying he never visited the site, asking, “So what are you the assistant commissioner of?
“Wherever there are construction sites throughout the world, there are safety measures,” she said. “It is your job to visit the site and see if safety measures have been taken or not,” she added, addressing the AC.
The chief minister reiterated that the neighbourhood saw the most foot traffic in the metropolis.
“There should not have even been parking here, but that’s a separate discussion. The question is not why parking was allowed, but why wasn’t it (the sewer) closed?” she asked.
“Not only did someone leave it open and didn’t care, but how can anyone read warning signs in an area where there is such darkness?” she questioned the LDA’s director general, adding that if someone were illiterate, they would not be able to read it.
“You told me that the contractor is at fault, and they absolutely are. The supervisor, consultant are all at fault, as are Nespak (National Engineering Society of Pakistan), the executing agency, TEPA (Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning Agency) and the LDA. But frankly, you, commissioner, Lahore DC, assistant commissioner, Wasa and the LDA are all at fault,” she asserted.
“There’s construction work ongoing in a prime area of the city and you people don’t know if it has been amply secured for the public? And somebody has started parking there and is taking money, does nobody know about this?” she added.
Addressing the officials, the CM declared that the site was left unsecured despite the high foot traffic in the area.
Directly addressing the Punjab chief secretary, she said she stressed in every meeting that no manhole be left open, because “the poor fall in and die, not the rich”.
“Please allow me to say, if it were my daughter or yours, then I would question you. Would the system be shaken or not? Do the people who left the site open not have children?” she remarked.
“The word criminal isn’t enough for this negligence.”
“I normally don’t fire DCs, but I am firing the DC over this incident, where a child fell into an open manhole,” she stated. “We’re in Lahore, a Safe City. How long does it take to see that the woman fell in the CCTV footage?”
The CM noted that one of her staffers examined the CCTV footage and confirmed that nobody pushed her into the sewer.
Adding that the call was made to Rescue 1122 two minutes after she fell, she said that “nobody can kill someone in two minutes, but in two minutes she could fall because of your negligence, incompetance and carelessness”.
“There are 10 institutions in one place, yet nobody seems responsible,” she added. CM Maryam said that there was “criminal apathy” at every level, adding that her husband was taken to a police station instead of being treated with compassion at that time.
She instructed an official to go across Punjab and install temporary cameras wherever they are needed, because “it is very easy for people to lie in Lahore”.
“No precautionary measures or safety measures were taken, the site was not cordoned off, and there was no temporary covering,” CM Maryam said. “The people who closed the site just went home comfortably and left the public to die.”
Addressing the Lahore commissioner and deputy commissioner and the LDA director general, as well as the Wasa managing director, she asked, “Do you even have a heart in your chests? How did this happen?”
She then asked who the supervisor was, but said that the Lahore commissioner, deputy commisisoner and the LDA director general should be punished, adding that the assistant commissioner should be “especially” punished.
She further directed the chief secretary to remove TEPA Project Director Zahid Hussain and Wasa site in-charge Usman Babar from their posts and “they should never get another job again, so they know the extent of their criminal negligence”.
“Arrest them both, along with [project manager] Asghar Sindhu, [safety in-charge] Danial and [site in-charge] Ahmad Nawaz,” the CM ordered. “Make a strong case against them for criminal negligence. It’s amazing how people are dead and nobody is responsible.”
Later, in a post on X, she said, “ Instead of accepting responsibility, facts were distorted to hide incompetence. Officers who cannot even secure an open manhole have no right to hold office.”
“I will not rest until justice is served, the blood of the two daughters is accounted for, and every responsible officer is brought to punishment,” she said.
“Despite my relentless focus and repeated instructions, a poor life was lost to negligence and dereliction of duty, but what is even more painful is the attempt to suppress the truth,” she said.
“Let me be clear, the time of negligent and dishonest officers is over. I will stand as a shield for the family that was harassed instead of being given justice. In Punjab, every life will be valued, no matter how powerful the officer involved,” she asserted.
About the Author
