KARACHI: Residents of Gabol Town in the Federal B Industrial Area on Tuesday staged a sit-in in protest over the failure of civic authorities to rescue a three-year-old boy who fell into an open drain while playing with his friend on Monday.

The boy, Jawad Khan, fell into the drain along the Federal B Industrial Area and a low-income neighbourhood, Gabol Town. People of the area first tried to locate him on their own and later called the authorities concerned, who sent there the urban search and rescue team of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. However, the search remained unfruitful till late on Tuesday night.

`The team has been doing its job with all available resources but chances of the boy`s survival are very slim,` said an official. `After spending hours in the drain it was almost impossible to continue the search because of the sunset on Monday. We suspended the operation and started it again today [Tuesday] in the morning but so far there has been no trace of the drowned boy.

Relatives, friends and area people took to street on Tuesday noon, lit bonfires and blocked the road in the main industrial area for vehicular traffic.

Area SHO Inspector Naeem Khan said that the family and area people staged a protest demonstration in the af ternoon af ter the KMC team and rescue workers of different charities could not get any success.