'Unimaginable and heartbroken': Mahira Khan, Sajal Ali dismayed over Karachi boy's manhole death

Pakistan's showbiz stars have expressed deep grief over the death of a three-year-old boy, who fell into an open manhole near the Nipa flyover, questioning the "negligence" of local authorities in Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.

The tragedy occurred when three-year-old Ibrahim slipped into an uncovered manhole outside a departmental store. Rescue teams located the toddler’s body in a drain approximately one kilometre from the incident site — around 14 hours after the accident.

The family had gone shopping, and, according to the father, the child ran ahead after slipping his hand away before falling into the manhole.

Residents claimed that they made more than 40 calls and emails to authorities overnight, claiming only a single BRT engineer responded while municipal officials shifted blame between departments.

Locals later staged protests and burned tyres at Nipa Chowrangi, warning that the 1.5-kilometre stretch dug up during the search now poses another safety hazard.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Neelofar star Mahira Khan regretted the "screaming and crying" of the mother of three-year-old Ibrahim, asking: "Who the hell is answerable for Karachi in Karachi? Unimaginable apathy."

Similarly, Yaqeen Ka Safar star Sajal Ali also expressed grief over the incident, saying: "Extremely sad and hearthbroken shame on whoever was responsible for this."

"Who is responsible for Karachi? Who is responsible for this collapsing failed system?,” she wrote on her Instagram stories.

"A child lost his life today and I cannot even begin to imagine what his parents are going through. They must be waiting for a miracle… but because we have no functioning system, there was no one save him,” she remarked.