Police term Nipa boy’s manhole death an ‘accident’

• Police submit report declaring incident accidental.
• Parents decline legal action, police tell court.
• SHC seeks arguments from petitioner’s counsel.

KARACHI: Police have termed the death of a three-year-old Ibrahim, who fell into an open manhole near Karachi’s Nipa flyover, an accident, submitting a report to the court stating that no cognisable offence was made out in the incident.

The tragedy occurred on November 30 late at night when a three-year-old child slipped into an uncovered manhole outside a departmental store. People pooled money to bring in machinery themselves in a desperate bid to rescue the child.

However, he was found 14 hours later, with eyewitnesses saying state machinery arrived only after hours of delay. Residents claimed that they made more than 40 calls to authorities overnight, claiming only a single BRT engineer responded while municipal officials shifted blame between departments.

The report was submitted by the station house officer (SHO) of Aziz Bhatti police station during proceedings on a petition seeking registration of a case against the Karachi Mayor, town chairman, the Water Corporation and the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) contractor.

According to the police report, the incident occurred on the night of November 30, 2025, when three-year-old Muhammad Ibrahim fell into a manhole near the Nipa flyover.

The child’s body was recovered approximately 15 hours later and sent for legal proceedings before being handed over to the parents by the municipal commissioner in the presence of local police.

Police informed the court that the parents of the deceased child had recorded statements stating that they did not want any legal action in the matter. The report also said that the applicant, Advocate Sheikh Saqib Ahmed, has no blood relation with the deceased child.

The police maintained that in light of the parents’ statements and the circumstances of the incident, no cognisable offence was established and the incident was an accident.

Advocate Ahmed, who filed the petition in the Sindh High Court, argued that a case of culpable homicide should be registered against the nominated parties. The court directed the petitioner’s counsel to present arguments at the next hearing.

Following the criticism, the Sindh Local Government Department suspended multiple officials, including Imran Ahmed Rajput, senior director of municipal services at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, and Rashid Fayyaz, assistant executive engineer at the Town Municipal Corporation, Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Similarly, the executive engineer of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation, Waqar Ahmed, has been suspended.

Other suspended officials include Gulshan-e-Iqbal Assistant Commissioner Aamir Ali Shah and Gulshan-e-Iqbal Mukhtiarkar Salman Farsi.