GUJRAT: Two teenage boys were critically injured by stray dogs in separate incidents on Chah Berri Wala on Shahdaula Road and Alipura Road on Friday.

In the first incident, a pack of stray dogs attacked the youngest son (name couldn’t be confirmed ) of Akram in Rado Fan street on Shahdaula Road.

The boy also sustained dog-bite injury to his head during the attack after which he was shifted to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital (ABSTH) where he received around half a dozen stitches and a shot of rabies vaccine.

Later, the doctors declared the boy’s condition stable and discharged him.

Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Bilal Zubair and ABSTH Medical Superintendent Dr Ayaz Nasir also inquired after the injured boy at the hospital.

In the other incident, Ahmed Raza (12) was injured after being bitten by stray dogs on his left leg in a street near Alipura Road.

Following the incident, the enraged father of the injured boy reached the scene and killed the dog that had bitten his son.

On being called, a team of Rescue 1122 reached the spot and shifted the injured boy to the ABSTH, where he was given treatment and rabies vaccine.

The dog bite incidents have surged alarmingly in the district despite local administration’s lofty claims of action against stray dogs.

In October, a toddler belonging to a gypsy family was killed in a an attack by stray dogs near the Gujrat Railway Station.

Gujrat Municipal Corporation had then claimed to have constituted teams for action against stray dogs but there is no let-up in the dog attacks in the city.

The citizens have urged Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to take notice of the situation and order measures to protect them from the attacks by stray dogs.

Official sources say that incidents of dog attacks on people have almost doubled in the last month as compared to the same period in 2023.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2024