KARACHI: A man was arrested for allegedly setting his minor son on fire for not doing school homework in their Orangi Town house, police said.

They said that the incident took place on Sept 14 when Nazeer poured kerosene oil on his 12-year-old son, Shaheer, and set him on fire in Rais Amrohvi Colony.

The boy suffered critical burn wounds and was initially taken to the nearby Sindh Government Qatar Hospital, from where he was moved to the Burns Centre of the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK). He died during treatment later.

The police said that the father was arrested and a case was registered against him on the complaint of the victim’s mother.

Suspect tells investigators he just wanted to scare his son

He was produced before a judicial magistrate on Monday and the court remanded him in police custody till Sept 24.

During an initial probe, the suspect told investigators that he did not intend to kill his son.

He said he had sprinkled kerosene oil on him just to scare him as he was not doing his school homework. He said he had just lit a match to frighten the boy, but the oil caught fire and he got burnt badly.

The police said they were investigating the case.

Seven hurt in gas explosion

Seven members of a family suffered burn wounds in a explosion due to leakage of gas in their Korangi home on Monday.

The condition of four siblings was stated to be critical as they suffered 100 per cent burns.

Zaman Town SHO Rizwan Patel said that the family had accidentally left a gas stove on at night in Bengali Para. The leaked gas accumulated in the room and when someone lit a match to prepare breakfast in the morning, it triggered an explosion, causing injuries to seven persons.

The injured were shifted to the Burns Centre of the CHK for treatment.

Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed said that four persons suffered ‘extremely serious’ burns while two others were also serious with over 30pc burns.

The injured were identified as Hajira Rafiq 50, (33pc burns) and her six children — Amna Rafiq, 10, (14pc burns), Sadia Rafiq, 20, (100pc burns), Siddiq Rafiq, 24, (100pc), Nadia Rafiq, 20, (34pc), Abdullah Rafiq, 26, (100pc) and Imran Rafiq, 12, (100pc) — infant Gulat Noor (9pc) and her mother Saima Noor, 25, (12pc).

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2022