KARACHI: The killing of a five-year-old schoolgirl in a traffic accident on Friday morning sparked violence as enraged people torched two buses involved in a deadly race on main M.A. Jinnah Road that resulted in the fatal accident.

While police failed to arrest the two bus drivers from the scene of the crime, they took into custody about a dozen people and booked them under antiterror laws. One of the drivers was arrested later in the evening.

Saddar SP Tauqeer Mohammed Naeem said that two buses of route 4-K and 4-Q were racing on main M.A. Jinnah Road; one of the fast-moving buses, in a bid to overtake the other, hit a motorcycle near Saeed Manzil.

Water tanker crushes boy in another incident

He said that the motorcyclist, Huzaifa, and his daughter Sakeena riding pillion fell on the road, but the recklessly driven bus did not stop and ran over the girl.

The CCTV footage reviewed by the police later revealed that the bus driver got off the vehicle, saw the girl lying on the road, but chose to walk away from the scene. The second driver also abandoned his bus and escaped.

A number of people rushed to the scene and shifted the wounded man and his daughter to the nearby Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, where doctors pronounced the girl dead on arrival.

Additional Police Surgeon Qarar Abbasi said that the girl’s father was being treated at the trauma centre.

The police said that the accident took place at 7.30am and the man was heading to drop his daughter to her school.

Meanwhile, angry people set both the buses on fire and pelted other public transport vehicles with stones.

A fire brigade official said that they got information about the incident at 8.58am and one fire tender was immediately despatched but the mob manhandled the firemen and stop them from putting out the fire.

He said that three police mobile vans led by the area DSP were present there but they did not intervene. Finally, firemen escorted by Rangers reached the scene again at 9.17am and extinguished the fire. However, by that time both the buses were completely destroyed.

The Saddar SP said that the police detained 11 protesters on charges of rioting.

The Preedy police on Friday evening registered a case against them under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

The Saddar SP said that four of the held persons had been identified in the CCTV footage as the ones actively involved in the violence.

Late in the evening, SSP South Javed Akbar Riaz said that Mohammad Salim, the bus driver responsible for the fatal accident, had been arrested in a raid in the Sachal area.

The owner of the bus, Mohammad Azam, was also detained, he added.

A case was registered against bus driver Salim on charges of manslaughter and rash driving.

Water tanker runs over minor boy

In another incident, a 10-year-old boy was crushed to death by a water tanker in Machhar Colony on Friday noon.

Docks SHO Waqar Kaiser said Arbaz Khan was riding a bicycle when he lost balance near Mehrban Chowk and fell; a fast-moving water tanker ran him over.

Area people got hold of the tanker driver and also pelted his vehicle with stones.

However, a police contingent, already deployed in the area for the protection of polio workers, rushed to the spot and prevented the situation from deteriorating further.

The driver, Mehmood Khan, was arrested and the police impounded the tanker.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2017