KARACHI: Three people died due to electrocution in the city in the aftermath of Thursday night’s rain, police and rescuers said on Friday.

In Azizabad, Raheel Arif, 35, got electrocuted after his motorbike slipped in accumulated rainwater late on Thursday night.

However, Area SHO Farrukh Hashmi said that the District Municipal Corporation-Central and a local community had installed an electric pole in the area and it did not belong to K-Electric.

The death sparked a protest as enraged people gathered and they were joined by JDC chief Zafar Abbas.

In a video message, he said that residents told him that Mr Arif worked as a salesman in Karimabad. He was on his way to a nearby hospital to see his pregnant wife who gave birth to a child around 10 minutes after the death of her husband.

He asked the chief justice of Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan and army chief to take notice of the death by electrocution.

JDC chief says the woman gave birth to a child minutes after the death of her husband

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, a man along with his sacrificial animal was electrocuted.

The Aziz Bhatti police said that Soomar Khan, 22, purchased a cow for Rs80,000 and he was passing through Shanti Nagar, Dalmia when he suffered an electric shock from a pole. He and the cow died.

The victim originally hailed from Rahim Yar Khan.

Also, an Edhi Foundation spokesperson said that Kamran Rozi, 25, suffered an electric shock near Banaras Colony and died.

The body was shifted to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formalities.

KE version

The KE said three fatal incidents of electrocution were reported in the city but two of them did not involve KE infrastructure.

About Azizabad’s incident, it said Raheel Arif reportedly came into contact with a streetlight pole wrapped with decorative lights. It could not be ascertained at the time whether the said streetlight pole and wrapping of LEDs were installed by local administration or area association.

About the Shanti Nagar incident, the power utility said investigations were under way and initial reports said leakage of current in the TV cable hanging at a low height created an electric current. While KE’s pole was fully grounded, the encroached wire and subsequent current from the illegal wires on the pole proved fatal for Soomar along with a cow, it added.

Two women shot at

Two women commuters suffered bullet wounds as they were caught in crossfire between police and a criminal on main Korangi Road in Defence Housing Authority on Friday.

The Defence police said that a police patrol spotted two suspects near the Nadra mega centre. When the police tried to check them, one of the suspects escaped while his accomplice jumped into a moving minibus and a policeman followed him.

Area SHO Azam Rajpar claimed that the suspect resorted to firing in which two women suffered bullet wounds. The suspect, identified as Husain Ali, 40, was arrested along with a pistol.

The injured women were shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.

Doctors said that Kulsoom Habib, 36, and Zar Pari, 50, suffered bullet wounds in their abdomen.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021