KARACHI: Four brothers died from inhaling toxic fumes from a power generator while they slept in their house near Babar Kanta in Landhi on Tuesday.

The Sharafi Goth police said that the generator was switched on because of a prolonged power breakdown in their area due to rain.

They victims were identified as Anwar Ahmed, 22, Umar, 20, Usman, 18, and Hamza, 16. The bodies were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medico-legal formalities. JPMC’s executive director Dr Seemin Jamali said that they apparently died of “gas inhalation”.

“The brothers died of suffocation as fumes emanating from the generator filled their room,” said Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur.

The police also took samples of the meal they had taken before going to sleep and sent them to a laboratory for test. However, apparently, no poison was found in the food.

The deceased originally hailed from Pishin, Balochistan.

Protest as passerby killed in crossfire

A passer-by was killed when he got caught in the crossfire between police and a suspected criminal in the Pirabad area on Monday afternoon, officials said on Tuesday.

The killing of Mohammed Adeel sparked a protest from his family and relatives, who took his coffin to the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday afternoon and staged a protest there.

The protesters, including women and children, said that he was killed by firing carried out by the police.

One of the relatives told Dawn outside the KPC that Adeel was a Hafiz-i-Quran and a tailor by profession. He left his home on Monday afternoon and was talking with a rickshaw driver when a bullet fired allegedly by a policeman hit him in the head, he said.

The protesters said that area people got hold of the policeman handed him over to the police. They demanded that a murder case be registered against the police.

However, Pirabad SHO Amjad Javed claimed that the victim was not killed by police fire.

He said that the police party travelling in a mobile van signalled a suspected drug peddler, Akbar, to stop. Instead, the suspect resorted to firing and the police retaliated. During the exchange of fire Adeel was killed, he added. The police managed to arrest the suspect and recovered a pistol from his possession, he added.

Meanwhile, a woman sustained burn injuries when a fire broke out in an apartment in Jamshed Quarters on Tuesday, police said.

They added that the blaze erupted in an apartment near Islamia College. The police believed the fire broke out due to gas leakage. As a result, a 50-year old woman, Najma Mushtaq, sustained burn wounds. She was transported to Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital for treatment.

In another incident, 18-year-old Tahir was stabbed to death in Mochko area.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2019