RAWALPINDI: Haider Ali, a vendor who was injured along with his two cousins when a drone crashed near Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, succumbed to his injuries in the hospital four hours later, at 3pm.

Haider Ali, 22, a resident of Amar Sandhu, Lahore, had come to Rawalpindi on Wednesday to earn his livelihood by selling dry-fruit packs during a PSL cricket match being played at the stadium.

He was shifting his goods during the morning downpour when the incident occurred.

Manzoor Ahmad, one of Haider’s associates who worked at the same stall, told Dawn that Haider Ali and his cousins Toqeer Abbas and Faisal were collecting their belongings as heavy rain started when, all of a sudden, the incident happened.

“As I rushed to them, I found them injured, lying on the ground and screaming. I requested the police van driver, who was also there, to help me shift the injured to the hospital,” Manzoor said.

He further said that the injured were shifted to the hospital, but Haider Ali could not survive. The two others injured, Toqeer Abbas and Faisal Virk, were in stable condition.

The body of Haider Ali, who was the only son of his parents, was handed over to his heirs by the police after a postmortem conducted at Holy Family Hospital. Later, they shifted the body to Lahore for burial.

Another house was damaged when a drone crashed into a building in Westridge on Thursday. However, no casualty was reported.

As the drones were brought down near RCS, law enforcement agencies, bomb disposal squads, and rescue teams rushed to the spot and cordoned off the scene, with police deployed all around to prevent anyone from getting close to the drone debris.

According to an eyewitness who requested anonymity, a loud explosion was heard, and shortly afterwards, law enforcement and district administration officials reached the spot.

Upon hearing the explosion, he said, people started running away, while many came out of their shops and nearby houses to see what had happened.

A police official said that the food street was not fully open and there were not many people there; otherwise, the casualties could have been higher.

Due to the falling drone, windowpanes of the cricket stadium building and adjacent shops came crashing down. Besides that furniture in some shops was also damaged.

However, vehicular traffic on the double road continued, as the gates of the food street were closed and police were deployed.

In some videos, windowpanes and debris, believed to be from Indian drones, could be seen scattered all around, with policemen trying to stop people from getting close to the scene.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2025