KARACHI, Aug 29: A seven-year-old boy was killed and his younger brother wounded on Wednesday when a pistol in the hands of their nine-year-old friend went off in Orangi Town.

The Pakistan Bazaar police said Usman, son of Sakhawat, was playing with the children in the house of his next-door neighbour Manzoor Alam, a labourer. They said he went to his house and brought the licensed pistol of his father, a TV technician, to play with other children.

SHO Inspector Irfan Ahmed said a bullet pierced Mohsin’s upper torso and hit Abrar.

He said the dead and the injured were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the injured boy was stated to be in a stable condition.

The police officer who interviewed Usman said the children of the two neighbours wanted to be part of Shab-i-Baraat festivity.

“The victim and other children asked Usman to bring his father’s pistol to celebrate the occasion,” he said.

The SHO said Usman went to his house at around 12:40pm and took out the pistol of his father, who was not present there, and brought it to his neighbour’s house. “He pointed the loaded pistol to the chest of Mohsin and pressed the trigger in his ignorance,” he added.

The police official said Usman had seen his father fire shots on the eve of Independence Day and he knew where his father kept the weapon.

“His mother was preparing lunch when he whisked away the weapon,” he added.

Inspector Ahmed said Usman’s father had been taken into custody and would be charged with the offence of negligence and carelessness in keeping the weapon out of children’s reach.

Inspector Sadiq Awan of the investigation police told Dawn that if the family of the victim opted for action against Usman, the police would produce him before court for a decision. “If the victim’s family don’t initiate any legal course against the boy, the case will be closed,” he added.