KARACHI: Two minor boys drowned on Monday while bathing in a pit filled with rainwater outside an under-construction building in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. A third child managed to escape unscathed. The deceased were identified as 10-year-old Mureed Hussain, son of Abdul Muneer, and 11-year-old Haris, son of Abdul Ghaffar, both residents of Bhittaiabad. The deceased were shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) by Edhi Ambulance for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to their families. The boys were playing in accumulated rainwater, which had gathered in a pit dug up a while ago by labourers aiming to lay the foundation for the site. The incident occurred near Block 9, Magsi Chowk, within the limits of Malir Cantonment Police Station. Malir Cantonment SHO Agha Abdul Rasheed said that the three children were bathing in the pit when the incident took place. Mureed’s brother, Ghulam Hussain, managed to escape unharmed. This is not the first time this year that a citizen has lost thier life in an excavation pit. In May, alleged negligence by the Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) claimed the life of a teenage boy on Dhoke Kala Khan Service Road, where a 17-feet-deep pit dug for a water tank had been left uncovered for over six months.
