KARACHI: A sixth-grade student, who was said to be an expert swimmer, drowned during a swimming class in his school off Maulvi Tamizuddin Khan Road on Tuesday, officials said.

They added that 11-year-old Usman Durrani drowned and died during regular swimming class at the Habib Public School, where swimming trainers were busy with students as a routine exercise.

However, the deceased, the police added, was not a novice in the sport as he was a trained swimmer and had won several contests of his age group during the past couple of years.

“Apparently all evidence suggests Usman died of drowning,” said SP Keamari Erum Awan.

“But it’s quite strange because his family said that he was a brilliant swimmer and had even won medals for his skills in different contests. There were two trainers on the job who also appeared unaware of the exact reason of his drowning. We have arrested both the trainers and would lodge an FIR against them.”

He said the father of the deceased boy, Zeeshan Ahmed Durrani, initially was not willing to lodge an FIR, but the police convinced him to go for a post-mortem examination of the victim’s body to know the exact cause of his death.

Man found stabbed to death

The body of a man with multiple stab wounds was found in Memon Goth.

The area police said that the body was found in the bushes behind a government hospital, which was spotted by the staff of the health facility.

“The body was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where the victim was identified as 30-year-old Dhani Bux,” said an official at the Memon Goth police station. “He was a resident of Thatta and came here a couple of days ago to see a friend over some monetary deal. It appears that he was killed somewhere else and his body was later dumped in this isolated place. We are collecting evidence with the hope to reach the suspects very soon.”

Honour killing cases

Meanwhile, Sindh police IG Dr Syed Kaleem Imam chaired a meeting to review progress made by the police department in its investigations into honour killing cases.

An official statement said that the audio-link session was attended by additional inspector general of police (AIG Sukkur), deputy inspector general of police (DIG Sukkur), DIG headquarters, DIG crime and investigation, AIG operations and other officials concerned.

“The Sindh IG has directed the DIG investigations to prepare a detailed case-to-case basis report about release and conviction in the honour killing cases registered by the department across the province,” it said.

“He has further directed the officials concerned to ensure that there must not be any loophole in investigations. DIG Sukkur has been asked to take on board all stakeholders concerned and with their consultation a proposal [be] developed to help end the menace of karo kari.”

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2019