A Karachi court has summoned the station house officer (SHO) of the Jackson police station along with a report regarding action taken on a citizen’s plea against Karachi Port officials over the deaths of several people in Keamari allegedly from a toxic gas leak last month.

A citizen of Keamari, Sajid Khan, had approached the court with the plea that on February 16 his mother’s health condition deteriorated and he rushed her to the Ziauddin Hospital where he found many other patients with the same health problem.

The applicant stated that when he tried to lift his mother from the wheelchair at the hospital, she was in an unconscious state and the doctors, after checking her, pronounced her dead.

Later, the citizen stated, he came to know through different sources that a cargo vessel namely HERCULIS had reportedly docked at berth number 10 at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Feb 16.

Khan said due to alleged negligence of the officials concerned, who were responsible for the landing and opening of the vessel at the port, his mother and other people lost their lives.

He said he went to the Jackson police station to lodge a First Information Report (FIR) against the persons responsible for the alleged negligence at the port, but the SHO refused to record his statement and only received his complaint in writing dated Feb 24.

He regretted that no action has been taken so far on his application and argued that since the acts of the officials concerned fall under the ambit of Section 321 [Qatl-bis-Sabab (causing death to a person unintentionally)] of the Pakistan Penal Code, which is a cognisable offence, the Jackson SHO may be directed to register an FIR against the culprits.

At least 10 people were killed when an alleged toxic gas leakage sent residents of Keamari and adjoining areas rushing to hospitals with complaints of breathing difficulties in February.

While authorities were waiting for reports of a forensic probe as well as chemical examinations to ascertain the exact cause of the mysterious incident, a report of Karachi University’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) suspected that "soya bean dust (aeroallergens)" may have caused the deaths.

Based on the report, a ship was removed from the Karachi Port and "it gradually reduced the intensity of the toxic gas in the air", Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani had told Dawn last month.