KARACHI, April 6: A recklessly-driven minibus crushed a four- year-old girl to death in Orangi Town on Saturday.

Enraged people of the locality staged a protest against the transport operators and the traffic police. The shops and markets in the area were closed following the incident to mourn the death of the girl.

According to the witnesses and the police, a woman, resident of Gulshan-i-Bihar in Orangi Extension, was alighting from a minibus of route X-24 (JE-1655) along with her daughter Eima Warsi, 4, and a six-month-old son in her arms, when the minibus driver accelerated the vehicle. The small girl, who was still alighting the minibus following her mother, lost her balance, fell on the ground, came beneath the rear wheels of the vehicle, and died an instantly.

The shrieks of her mother shocked the area people and the passengers of the minibus, who forced the driver to stop the vehicle.

The people beat the driver and raised slogans against the reckless driving of the drivers of the public transport.

They also raised slogans against the traffic police for their negligence to control reckless driving by the public transport drivers.

The people closed their shops and markets in the locality in protest. The police reached the spot, impounded the minibus and arrested the driver identified as Mohammad Tasleem. The police were not sure whether the driver had a driving licence or not.

Transport operators had given assurance to the City Nazim recently that they would be careful in future and the token system, a major cause of speeding, would be eliminated. They had also made assurances that drivers would be careful in lifting and dropping passengers at prescribed bus stops.

CARJACKING: 17 vehicles — ten cars and seven motorcycles — were either hijacked or stolen from different localities in the city on Saturday, the police sources said.