SANGHAR: Two sanitation workers died after inhaling poisonous gas while trying to open a choked sewer near M.A. Jinnah Road on Monday.

Eyewitnesses said that the victims identified as Sunny Pehlaj and Sunny Pashoo were busy working inside a manhole along with three other co-workers when they fell unconscious after inhaling some toxic gas.

Their colleagues pulled them out and shifted them to civil hospital where doctors pronounced them dead on arrival, they said.

The victims’ relatives brought the dead bodies to press club where they held a sit-in on Sanghar-Mirpurkhas road for two hours, demanding justice for heirs of the victims and action against the municipal officials who forced the sanitary workers to work in hazardous conditions without providing them protective gear.

They said that the victims, who were around 30 years old, were asked to descend into the deep manhole to clean it with their bare hands although it should have been cleaned by machines.

The protesters ended the sit-in and dispersed peacefully after Sanghar additional deputy commissioner and ASP police assured them of justice.

Published in Dawn, October 27th, 2020