Karachi
The Sindh chief minister on Monday handed out cheques worth Rs500,000 to four bereaved families of the victims who had passed away in an explosion in Incholi, Block 17 of FB Area, two years ago.
On November 22, 2013, two powerful explosions had ripped through a neighbourhood situated near an Imambargah in Incholi.
Seven people had died, including a little boy and an associate producer at Geo Television, Salik Jafri.
A ceremony was held on Monday to distribute cheques to the families of victims. Four families, out of total seven, were presented by the chief minister with cheques worth Rs500,000.
Moreover, cheques worth Rs200,000 were also handed over to each of the 62 injured during the incident.
The cheques were collected by Sabra Bibi on behalf of her deceased son Khizar Khan, Ms Sitwat Ara Begum on behalf of her son Salik Ali Jafri, S Fareed-ul-Hassan on behalf of deceased Zargham Ali Naqvi and Ms Kausar Parveen on behalf of her deceased husband Rizwan-ul-Haq.
Speaking on the occasion, chief minister Qaim Ali Shah the Sindh government was committed to act against terrorists, target killers, extortionist and kidnappers under the National Action Plan (NAP) and had also made substantial achievements in this regard.
He said this was evident from the almost-zero cases of kidnapping for ransom cases in the recent months.
Addressing the ceremony the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that though this little amount could not be considered as substitute to life and health but it was just a token to express sympathies with affected families and persons.
He expressed his sympathies with the families in the delay in distribution of compensation amount which he attributed to stringent verification process to ascertain that the money was handed over to authentic family members. He assured that steps were being taken to expedite the process.
He said though the money could not lessen their grief of losing loves ones, he
hoped that it expressed the good will of the government.
The chief minister said the government gave utmost importance to protecting the lives and properties of people and creating more sources of income for them.