KARACHI: The death toll from the Shershah drain blast rose to 18 as another victim died of his wounds on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the Karachi police said that the 30-year-old Jamil Ahmed was admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital due to his serious condition. He was unconscious after sustaining serious head injuries.

After undergoing surgery, doctors put him on ventilator but he couldn’t survive, the spokesperson said.

“The victim originally hailed from Rajanpur. He used to work as a labourer in the same [Shershah] area. His family took his body for burial in his hometown after medico-legal formalities,” said a health official.

On Dec 18, a deadly explosion in buildings constructed on a drain apparently due to accumulation of gases led to the collapse of a private bank branch and other structure killing 17 persons.

The father of MNA Alamgir Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was among the victims.

Investigators probing the blast had already sent several pieces of evidence collected from the scene to two labs for a forensic examination to determine the exact cause of the explosion.

As investigators were not sure about a preliminary report submitted by the bomb disposal squad that exiting of gases from the drain running underneath the building caused the blast, they decided to widen the scope of investigation.

Earlier, the Karachi police had said that according to the preliminary report, it seemed that the explosion was caused by gas accumulated in the nullah on which the bank was built.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021