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KARACHI, Dec 12: Three children died when they tasted a chemical powder while playing in a playground in Pak Colony soon after Iftar on Wednesday.
Those who died were Ambreena, aged 4, Farooq, aged 4, and Abid, aged 6.
The children were playing in a playground near Bilal Masjid in Haroonabad, Pak Colony, which has become a dumping site for chemical waste from nearby factories.
There are several dyeing and marble factories and tanneries in the locality.
The SSP West, Dr Tariq Khokhar, told this reporter that one of the three children fell unconscious, and he was first taken to a private hospital from where he was referred to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC). Two children were directly rushed to Civil Hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival.
A duty officer at Pak Colony police station said the three children consumed a chemical powder while playing in a playground. “We were informed of the incident by the area councillor,” he added.
However, postmortem could not be conducted on one of the bodies in the mortuary of Civil Hospital due to non-availability of electricity. There has been no electricity in the Civil Hospital’s mortuary for the past three days.
Dr Saleem, medico-legal officer, told this reporter that the in charge of the medicolegal section at Civil Hospital, Dr Hafiz Mohammed Athar, had written several times to the medical superintendent that autopsy could not be conducted in the mortuary due to disconnection of its electricity, but no action had been taken so far.
He said in the past three days no autopsy had been conducted in the hospital. “On Wednesday we had to refer the three dead children to the JPMC for post-mortem,” he added.
Doctors conducted post-mortem on all the three bodies in JPMC to ascertain the exact cause of death. The viscera have been sent to a laboratory and the post-mortem reports have been reserved till the receipt of chemical and histopathological examination reports.
The SSP West said investigation had begun to find out as to which factory had been dumping its chemical waste near the residential area. He said appropriate action, in accordance with law, would be taken against all those factories which had been dumping their dangerous chemical waste near residential areas.
SUICIDE: A jobless young man committed suicide in Pak Colony on Wednesday.
Shafqat, aged 21, resident of Hasrat Mohani Colony, had been jobless for quite some time past. He felt frustrated at this, but his parents asked him to bear the adverse circumstances with patience. But on Wednesday he committed suicide by consuming a heavy dose of insecticide when he was alone in his home.
He was taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.
DIES: A woman who had been stabbed and injured in Khwaja Ajmair Nagri a few days ago died on Wednesday. Nighat Sultana, aged 33, was attacked by a relation of hers during a quarrel on a petty matter.
ACCIDENTS: A woman was run over by a water tanker in New Karachi on Wednesday.
The police said that Wazir Khatoon, aged 40, was knocked down by a recklessly-driven water tanker (LS-5545) on the main road in sector 11-D in New Karachi while walking across the road. She died on the spot. The body was sent to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for post-mortem.
The police claimed to have arrested the tanker driver, Mohammed Hafiz, and impounded the vehicle.
A woman, 40, was crushed to death beneath the wheels of a railway engine in Malir on Wednesday while walking across the railway tracks.
