KARACHI, May 6: Police and the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) have remained clueless in the case of ‘criminal dumping’ of highly toxic industrial waste in an open area of Abidabad, Site Town.

The dumping, according to area people, is seen for the past few months and has already caused adverse effects on the health of dozens of children before claiming the life of a nine-year old boy, Iftikhar.

Sepa has lodged an FIR and collected samples of the waste for laboratory analysis.

The Investigation Zone-II police till Saturday evening had been unable to arrest the owner of the land, comprising two plots, where the chemical waste is being dumped.

“We started investigating the case on Saturday. Anyone found responsible for the act will be brought to the book,” chief investigator Zone-II Mir Zubair Mehmood said.

A senior Sepa official told Dawn that the results of the lab test, for which samples had been sent to three different centres, were still awaited. Apparently, the sludge or waste is strong acidic in nature and after ascertaining the exact name of the chemical substance or compound, we will be in a position to, at least, identify the industries which have been using or discharging such chemicals. The official said that the results would hopefully be received on Monday.

When contacted, Adviser to the CM on Environment Noman Saigal said that efforts were on to find out culprits. He said that what he was given to understand was that the dumping on this particular site had been started only two weeks back.

Due to the shortage of resources and manpower, the agency was unable to keep a proper watch on polluters. “It was only after a long pursuance that we were allowed to appoint environment monitoring inspectors in as meagre number as 10 or so. But the posts are still vacant, after the passage of one year now, due to some technical reasons.”

Doctors at the National Institute of Child Health said that in all, four children of aged between seven and 10 were brought in two batches to the NICH on March 15 and 17. One of the patients, Iftikhar, died on April 28 while two others were discharged after they were provided treatment over two weeks.

Dr Afroze Sherali, Director of the NICH, said that a 10-year boy, Shiraz, from Abidabad had been operated upon for amputation of his affected feet. He would be discharged shortly but would be called again when artificial limbs for him were arranged, added Dr Afroze.

According area people, dumping of waste and garbage at the place in question had been going on for long but the hazardous material started to be added to the garbage only a few weeks back.

According to Ashfaque H. Pirzada, a Sepa official, police had interrogated a former owner of the two plots in question in order to reach the present owner, who is stated to be an industrialist.