KARACHI: A boy was pulled out alive on Saturday with two bodies from the rubble of the buildings that had collapsed in Gulbahar on Thursday. The death toll from the tragedy thus rose to 19 with suspicions that some other people might also be trapped under the rubble.

The boy stated to be 13 to 14 years old, could not be identified.

The two bodies recovered from the debris of the collapsed buildings in the evening were identified as that of Tariq Ali, 24, and Amir Ali, 55. They were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.

Meanwhile, a preliminary probe suggested that the owner-cum-builder carried out excavation at the foundation of the ground-plus-four storey building to erect additional pillars to strengthen the structure before the building collapsed and fell on three adjoining multistorey buildings.

The owner carried out this activity when the building developed cracks during the construction of its upper floor, police said.

Rizvia Society police station investigation officer (SIO) Agha Amir told Dawn that the owner, Mohammed Javed Khan, had started construction work on a fifth floor when the building cracked.

The builder allegedly carried out major excavation work at the foundation and tried to erect additional pillars to support the existing pillars to strengthen the building structure.

The builder, who has been nominated in the FIR on charges of manslaughter etc, was apparently doing this to prevent the building from collapsing.

Besides, according to the police, since the area was facing a water shortage, most of the construction work was being carried out with the help of subsoil water that was also being used for domestic consumption.

The officer said that this practice of extracting underground water was also leading to land subsidence, thus the structure of the buildings was stated to have been weakened. However, the officer said this was only their preliminary probe into the incident.

He suggested that it was up to the engineers and experts concerned to ascertain the exact cause of the collapse of the multistorey building.

The rescue institutions continued removing the debris from the place on the third consecutive day on Saturday when the boy was rescued alive. The police officer said that the youngster was rescued alive during the removal of the debris.

The police feared that some more people might be trapped under the rubble, but added that their relatives had not approached the police on the matter.

On Thursday and Friday, the debris was removed manually to save lives.

However, on Saturday, heavy machinery was used. All shops and roads leading to the place have been cleared as area people cooperated with the authorities in using heavy machinery for the removal of rubble.

Police surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi said that all but one injured persons had been discharged after first aid from the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. He added that an unknown injured man, in his 20s, had been admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital as his condition was serious.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020