KARACHI: A 36-year-old pregnant woman was shot at and wounded while she was waiting at the gate of a private school for admission of her son in a Korangi locality on Saturday, police and hospital officials said.

They added that Kiran with her husband, Amjad, had gone there to get their son admitted to the Karachi Public School near Korangi Crossing.

She was waiting inside the car while her husband went inside the school. In the meantime, two suspects riding a motorbike appeared there. They shot and wounded her critically and fled. She was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.

Dr Seemin Jamali, executive director of the hospital, said that the woman was seven-months pregnant. She had sustained a bullet wound in the chest. She belongs to the Christian community.

An Ibrahim Hyderi police officer said that it was not a botched robbery as the culprits did not take away anything. The family also told the police that they had no enmity with anyone. The police were investigating the case to ascertain the motive of the attackers.

A resident of the same area told Dawn that this had been a relatively peaceful area where the incident occurred. A police post was established near the school, but it was recently vacated.

Bike-snatchers injure young man

A 32-year-old man was shot at and wounded by suspected robbers on resistance in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in the early hours of Saturday, Aziz Bhatti police said.

They added that Wazeer Ali was riding a motorbike when gunmen on a motorcycle intercepted him at the NIPA (now NIM) bridge. They tried to snatch the bike from him. As he put up resistance, the gunmen opened fire on him and fled with the snatched two-wheeler.

The victim sustained a bullet wound in a leg.

In another incident, Ashfaq Ramzan, 45, was shot at and wounded by robbers on resistance outside a graveyard in Sector-5-G of the New Karachi Industrial Area on Saturday afternoon, according to an Edhi Foundation spokesperson.

Minor girl drowns in SITE drain

A minor girl drowned in a drain in the SITE area on Saturday evening, police and rescue officials said.

They added that Noor Fatima, aged three to four years, was walking on a small bridge in Khyber Colony near Valika Chowrangi when she fell into a drain, said SITE-A SHO Yasin Gujjar.

Around 40 to 50 residents of the same locality entered the drain but could not find her.

Subsequently, the police called the rescue services but till late in the evening they also could not trace her. The officer said he believed that she had drowned.

The Edhi Foundation spokesperson said that their four divers were busy in rescue efforts.

The police officer said that the settlement was established adjacent to a drain where the residents have set up “small bridges” on a self-help basis.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020