GUJRAT: A minor boy drowned in a drain in front of a private hospital near Deputy Commissioner House along Jail Road on Wednesday.

Reports said Faizan (3) had come to a private hospital along with his aunt to visit his mother who had been admitted there for delivery.

As soon as the boy came out of the hospital he slipped into the drain as rainwater was accumulated along the road above the drain level which an of ficial said might have caused confusion for the child.

The Rescue 1122 team later recovered the boy from the drain near Jail Chowk and doctors said he was alive but unconscious and he breathed his last on way to the Kharian Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

Boy`s father Khurram Shahzad, aresident of Railway Road area, confirmed the death of Faizan and said his wife had given birth to a baby boy on Tuesday but the newborn too could not survive and died whereas his wife was still in intensive care unit.

There are a number of private hospitals, government offices and educational institutions along the Jail Road and the drain passing through the road is mainly open except the [passage] slabs in front of buildings.

Whenever there is heavy rain in the city, water accumulates there making it hard for the passersby to differentiate between the drain and the road that would often cause such tragic incidents.

Locals have urged the authorities concerned to take precautionary measures and construct a fence alongboth sides of the open drain.

ROBBERY: Three robbers looted cash and mobile phones worth Rs0.5 million from a shop near Staff Gala along Sargodha Road on Wednesday.

Reports said three motorcyclists entered Waqas mobile phone shop and deprived traders and customers of Rs350,000 and mobile phones worth Rs200,000. A police team reached the spot and collected forensic evidence from the crime scene.

The traders laterlodged a protest against the incident as the area has consistently been a target of armed robberies for the last 10 days.

Earlier, traders staged a protest demonstration against the robberies by blocking traf fic on Sargodha Road after a grocery store incident on June 26. Correspondent