RAHIM YAR KHAN: A man and his two minor children were killed while another was injured when his motorcycle fell into an open manhole on the Thali Mahatma Road near the Government Technical Training Institute on Saturday night.

According to Rescue 1122, Kaleemullah (35), a resident of Latifabad, was going home along with his children, Abdul Momin (10), Zainab (4) and Ume Hani (2), on a motorcycle.

When he reached near the Sui Gas Chowk, his motorcycle fell into an open manhole. As a result of the accident, Kaleem, Zainab and Ume Hani died on the spot while Momin got injured.

The injured child is stated to be in critical condition at the Sheikh Zayed Medical College Hospital.

The manhole was dug by the Public Health Department, highwaydepartment and municipal committee (MC) and there was no electricity in the area due to power loadshedding by the Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco).

According to the locals, the work on the road has been going on for the last two months.

They said the highway department had written a letter to the public health department to complete the repair of the mega sewerage pipeline immediately so that the road could be constructed. But the officials concerned were allegedly least interested in repairing the sewerage.

Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza told Dawn he constituted a committee, comprising additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Barrister Bilal Saleem, Assistant Commissioner Azman Chaudhry and District Emergency Officer Dr Adil.

The committee completed its report in the evening and the ADC (Revenue) registered an FIR under Section 322 of the PPC against eight responsible officers and the contractors of the road project.