Report sought on action taken against IOs over no autopsies

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the provincial police chief to submit a progress report on the action taken against the investigating officers (IOs) who had failed to get autopsies done on the bodies of those who had died in the mysterious deaths case of Mochko.The direction came on petitions about the 19 recent mysterious deaths, most of them of minor children, in Keamari’s Mochko area allegedly due to toxic gas emissions, as well as the similarly mysterious deaths in Keamari in 2020.

An SHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed asked a provincial law officer and an IO about the progress made in the investigation of these casesThe bench asked the provincial law officer what action had been taken against the police officials who had not gotten autopsies conducted on the people who had died in these cases. The court issued notices to the police chief to submit a progress report to show what action has been taken against the IOs who had failed to get autopsies done on the bodies.

The petitioners, including rights activists, had also approached the SHC for ascertaining the cause of deaths in the 2020 Keamari gas leak incident, in which 19 people had died and hundreds of others had been affected due to a poisonous gas leak in the port area.

They had said that the federal and provincial authorities had failed to protect the lives of the residents, with no precautionary measures taken by the port authorities to prevent the deadly leak.They sought an independent inquiry into the incident, and direction for the government to pay compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased as well as to the survivors. In its interim report the Sindh Health Department had mentioned that 19 mysterious deaths had been reported in Ali Mohammad Goth, Mawach Goth, UC-8, District Keamari, between January 10 and January 25.

The report said that all the victims had exhibited symptoms of fever, sore throat and shortness of breath, followed by death in five to seven days. Moreover, according to the report, the symptomatic patients had not shown any rashes or conjunctivitis, although the community had complained of a severely irritating smell in the environment.