LAHORE: Rescue 1122 on Thursday confirmed the recovery of the body of a young girl who had fallen into an open sewer line with her mother a day earlier in Lahore.
According to a statement issued by Rescue 1122, its “diving team had recovered the girl’s body from Saggian”, located about five kilometres from Bhatti Chowk, the site of the incident.
Earlier, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Farooq Ahmed said the department “received a call at 7:32pm on Wednesday about a mother and daughter falling into an open sewer line”. He added that the rescue effort continued “without any breaks”.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of Thursday, Lahore Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran told reporters that the mother’s body had been recovered from the disposal station on Outfall Road.
Responding to questions about reports suggesting that the water flow was insufficient to carry people away, Kamran said, “You should also look at the time difference. When it happened, the water flow was fast; those are peak hours.” He explained that the flow reduced later in the night.
When asked whether the family would file a case, the DIG said, “Whatever the family says and whatever their opinion is, we will act according to that.”
A day earlier, Lahore Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Mohammad Tauqir told Dawn that the woman’s husband had been taken into custody. He said the man had informed authorities that his wife and young daughter fell into the sewer line at around 7:30pm.
The SSP added that the husband was detained based on a statement from the woman’s father, who claimed the couple had been experiencing marital issues for several months. He further said the father had raised suspicions about the husband’s role, noting that he was the one who contacted Rescue 1122 to report the incident.
Last month, a similar tragedy occurred in Punjab’s Bahawalpur district, where a seven-year-old boy lost his life after falling into an open manhole in Dhanote town near Lodhran city.
