KARACHI: Mother, two children die from electrocution
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, June 6: Three members of a family — a woman, her son and her daughter — died from electrocution at their house in Malir on Wednesday in an attempt to rescue one another while another daughter suffered electric shocks.
The family and the area residents held the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) responsible for the deaths as a power cable, which was exposed at some places, caused the flow of electric current in the main metal gate of the house, which grabbed the victims one by one.
The KESC, however, blamed the consumers for neglecting the house’s internal wiring.
The electrocution victims were identified as Mobina Saleem, 50, her son, Zafar Saleem, 13, and her daughter, Shaheena Saleem, 18. The family was preparing for Shaheena’s wedding, which was to take place in the next couple of months. They were residents of Kausar Town, Malir.
The tragedy began when Zafar returned home shortly after a spell of load-shedding. As he opened the gate, he was electrocuted and became glued to it. His sister, Shaheena, who was mopping the floor, saw him and raised the alarm, attracting the attention of the other family members. When she rushed to rescue her brother, she also got stuck.
Seeing her children in agony, their mother, Mobina, tried to rescue them and met the same fate. Mobina’s other daughter tried to intervene but received severe electric shocks. She barely survived the accident.
However, a KESC spokesman blamed the consumers for neglecting the internal wiring. “The KESC is responsible for providing a connection to a meter. The cables coming out from the meter providing power to a house are the responsibility of the consumer. The wiring at the consumer’s end is checked by an electrical inspector of the Sindh government and it is not the responsibility of the KESC,” he said.
Soon after the incident, a KESC van inspected the spot and went away, disconnecting power to the area. After a while, it returned and replaced the wiring of the house in question.
The residents blamed the KESC for eliminating the evidence as the wiring that caused the deaths was exposed. The KESC van went away again after replacing the wiring and resumed the power supply, but sparks occurred in the wires, which snapped due to which two more people in the area suffered electric shocks but were not seriously injured. When the KESC van came to repair the snapped wire, it was attacked by incensed residents and its staff was manhandled.
“We had lodged several complaints with the KESC that the cable coming through the gate was loose and exposed due to the frequent movement of the gate,” Aslam Qureshi, the elder brother of Zafar, told journalists outside his house.
The area people and the family members informed the Malir Town Nazim, Ansar Ahmed Shaikh, who visited the house and condoled with Saleemuddin, the husband and father of the victims.
The residents asked the town nazim to play his role in constituting an inquiry into the accident.
KARACHI, June 6: Three members of a family — a woman, her son and her daughter — died from electrocution at their house in Malir on Wednesday in an attempt to rescue one another while another daughter suffered electric shocks.
