Live wires, crumbling houses leave 14 dead in downpour

KARACHI: Monday’s abrupt downpour in the metropolis left death and destruction in its wake, as police reported at least nine incidents of electrocution and five others of dilapidated structures crushing people beneath them since the previous night.

Eighteen-year-old Bisma Peer Shah was electrocuted while her sister Iqra and Kazo Bibi were injured when they touched an energised wall in New Rizvia Society. In another incident in New Rizvia Society, 18-year-old Rameez was also electrocuted.

Forty-five-year-old Muhammad Aslam was electrocuted in Block-18 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal. Sharea Faisal SHO Imtiaz said the incident took place near the water board office where Aslam had stepped into energised rainwater.

There were reports of 22-year-old Aslam Muhammad Naeem’s electrocution in New Karachi’s Madina Colony, but New Karachi SHO Gul Baig and New Karachi Industrial Area SHO Muhammad Waseem could not confirm the incident.

Azizabad SHO Tasawar Ameer reported that 45-year-old Kaleemullah Allah Wasaya was electrocuted in Bhangoria Goth, while according to North Nazimabad SHO Khalid Rafique, 45-year-old Fatima Wali Muhammad was electrocuted near the Ismaili jamaatkhana in the locality.

There were reports of 35-year-old Ruqaiya Manzoor’s electrocution in Khawaja Ajmair Nagri’s Rasheedabad, but SHO Aijaz Lodhi could not confirm the incident.

Soldier Bazaar SHO Arz Muhammad reported that motorcyclists Haris Arif, 22, and Mansoor Munaf, 24, died at Garden’s Qalandria Chowk when a live wire fell on them.

Besides electrocution, decrepit structures around the city also wreaked havoc on the people. Sachal SHO Shakir Ali reported that a hitherto unidentified teenage boy died after a signboard fell on top of him in the cattle market at Super Highway.

In another incident in the Sachal police precincts, a hitherto unidentified man appearing to be in his mid-30s was crushed to death when the roof of his house collapsed on top of him.

There were reports of a hitherto unidentified man appearing to be in his mid-30s dying after a wall of his house in Kaneez Fatima Society collapsed on top of him, but Surjani Town SHO Ghulam Rasool Arbab could not confirm the incident.

At the time this report was filed, two more hitherto unidentified men were crushed to death when the roof of their dilapidated house at Khyber Chowk in SITE Area’s Metroville locality collapsed on top of them.

According to initial reports, their bodies were recovered from the wreckage and a search operation was under way to rescue the people trapped underneath the rubble.