KARACHI: Five labourers, including two brothers, working in a small industrial unit died after they inhaled toxic fumes while cleaning an underground tank that contained some chemical waste in the Korangi Industrial Area on Sunday.

Witnesses and police said that the owner of the industrial unity — a polythene bag manufacturing factory — in Korangi’s Sector 24 called 11 workers on Sunday (weekly holiday) to get cleaned the tank where chemical waste was being dumped.

A factory worker, Alam, said that none of the labourers were given safety masks and rubber shoes to perform the task.

Landhi SP Afnan Amin told Dawn that initially three labourers descended into the tank to clean it, but they became unconscious. Two more workers went down to rescue them but they also became unconscious.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, other workers pulled them out and rushed them to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where they all died before any medical aid could be provided to them, the SP added.

Korangi Industrial Area SHO Abdul Rasool Siyal identified the victims as Abdul Raheem, his brother Irfan, Mairaj, Arbaz and Shakeel.

“We have received five bodies from a factory,” said Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the JPMC’s emergency department.

She said the families did not allow doctors to carry out a post-mortem examination. However, initial examinations suggested that the workers died from inhaling some toxic gases, probably carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide or methane, in the industrial unit’s tank, she added.

The area SHO said that the factory owner used to get the tank cleaned from his workers every month when it was filled with waste.

Moving scenes were witnessed outside the factory where victims’ relatives gathered after getting information about the death of their near and dear ones.

The two brothers had recently come here from Peshawar in search of livelihood and were staying at his elder brother’s home in Korangi, who is also working in the same factory.

The mother of victim Abdul Raheem told the media that her son had been working in the factory for the past eight months. He had recently applied for his computerised national identity card, which would help him in pay raise, she added.

Manslaughter case against factory owner

The Korangi Industrial Area police registered a case (FIR 462/2016) against the factory owner, Wasi, and supervisor Ahsan on the complaint of a labourer, Abdul Kalam.

The Landhi SP said that the case was registered under Sections 322 (qatl-bis-sabab, or manslaughter), 284 (negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance), 285 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter) and 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Meanwhile, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah expressed his profound grief over the death of five labourers in the Korangi factory.

A spokesman for the CM said that Mr Shah directed the labour secretary to submit a detailed report within three days with recommendation of action against the factory management.

He asked that how come the labourers were working on a weekly holiday (Sunday) and what kind of work they were doing. He wanted the labour secretary to let him know whether the victims were covered by the Sindh social security institution and what safety measures the factory management had taken to protect them.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2016