KARACHI: That the Quixotic spirit, with all its splendid if sometimes foolish chivalry, lives on among the simple folk even in our cynical, self-seeking times was demonstrated in a tragic incident in Usmanabad area, Karachi, on Friday [July 21], when two men, Bashir and Abdul Shakoor, taking pity on a wailing boy whose shoe had fallen down an old well gallantly attempted to recover it for him and died in the attempt.

Poisonous gases at the bottom of the well knocked them unconscious and they died later in hospital. The men, it is reported, volunteered to go down into the well on hearing the little boy’s pitiful wails... . First to go down was Bashir. When he did not come up the other man, Abdul Shakoor, followed. A rescue party later brought them out of the well in a state of unconsciousness and removed them to hospital, where they passed away. — Staff reporter

[Meanwhile as reported by Dawn’s North African Correspondent in Tunis,] the leader of the Tunisian Dastur Party, M. Habib Bouguiba … has called upon the people of Pakistan to extend moral and material support to end the “merciless” French colonial rule in the Maghreb.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2025