SHC seeks investigation criteria when victims’ heirs not allowing autopsies

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday took exception to the investigation criteria of the police for dealing with the recent mysterious deaths in the Keamari area and directed the additional IG legal to submit a report with regard to the police criteria to deal with such cases.

Hearing petitions with regard to mysterious deaths in Keamari in 2020 and 2023, a division bench of the SHC comprising Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed asked the advocate general why the cause of deaths had not been ascertained by the police by conducting autopsies of the victims.

The high court observed that the police had abdicated their responsibility by merely saying that legal heirs were not granting permission for autopsies of the bodies. The SHC inquired the law officer how the cause of deaths could be ascertained if the post-mortem of the bodies was not conducted.

The bench observed that the police had also not ascertained the cause of mysterious deaths in the Keamari area in 2020 and had the cause of those deaths been ascertained by the police, the responsible persons would have been brought to book.

The advocate general filed a report submitting that 10 cases had been registered, but final autopsy reports had not been received yet. The SHC directed the AIG legal to submit on the next hearing comments on what was the police criteria for investigations if the legal heirs were not cooperating. The Sindh health department had in its interim report mentioned that 18 mysterious deaths were reported from Ali Mohammad Goth, Mawach Goth UC-8, District Keamari in 16 days from January 10 to 25. They all exhibited symptoms of fever, sore throat and shortness of breath followed by death in five to seven days. Furthermore, the symptomatic patients did not show any rashes or conjunctivitis, although the community complained of a severely irritating smell in the environment.

The petitioners, including right activists, had also approached court for ascertaining the cause of 19 deaths that were said to be caused by gas leakage or soya bean dust in the Keamari area in 2020.

They submitted that the federal and provincial authorities had failed to protect the lives of citizens and no precautionary measures were taken by the port authorities to prevent the deadly leakage. They sought an independent inquiry into the incident and a direction to the government to pay compensation to the legal heirs of victims and affected citizens.